Uchiha in Halkegenia
by firelordozaie
Summary: He has two goals, to restore his clan and to kill a certain man. Extracted from everything he knows right after completing the second of these two, he will need to find a place in the world before he can hope to accomplish the first.
1. Prologue: The Best Laid Plans of Man

The black flames of Amaterasu flung forth.

His lone Sharingan spinning full of chakra to suppress the ever-burning flames, the young man that they originated from cried out slightly as he was swallowed up by a green light.  
"No!" The masked man screamed, literally tearing a hole in reality with his own powers to attempt to stop whatever was happening. In no time at all the 'true' leader of Akatsuki stood alone in the room, his sole living relative having vanished before his eyes. At that moment he came to the only logical conclusion as he screamed out. "Damn you Itachi!"

He couldn't have been more wrong.


	2. Ch 1 Learn French in Ten Minutes

A sense of falling started Sasuke awake, and the feeling of gravel hitting his cheek with the full force of his weight hitting the ground had him up on his feet in an instant. Looking around with his enhanced vision he was able to make out what looked like a crowd of children through the thick mist of debris and dirt kicked into the air. The smell of cinder and smoke hung around, and the only thing that kept him from attacking the crowd before the dust cleared was the absolute lack of any killing intent.

Oddly, though he couldn't understand it, what talking he could hear sounded more of concern than anything else. Moving his hand atop his sword into a ready position, but doing so in a manner that conveyed a relaxed posture so as to make it look like he was merely resting his arm there, he waited for the smoke to clear and cut the flow of spiritual energies to his eyes. His back was currently to the wall so keeping his Sharingan in reserve made it more likely they might not recognize him right away.

_"_-_garble garble garble!" _Now that he could read their lips it wasn't that the sounds were somehow muffled from the grit in the air, they were just using some sort of incomprehensible language. Mouthing their words he noticed that it was truly foreign from his own tongue, long strings of vowels, consecutive consonants, and several truly novel ways of utilizing the sounds the tongue makes. The biggest thing being the 'flow', where his own native language had a kind of staccato to its speech with each sound being its own syllable and all of them of mostly uniform length, this new speech he was hearing had a variety of combinations of sounds forming both long and short parts to whatever words they were speaking.

Unlike the more academic snake sannin would have due to his knowledge of language in general, he was not able to glean anything useful from what they were saying. He was however still a shinobi, and was more than capable of reading body language. The little pink-haired girl was stomping and yelling at a middle-aged bald man, and if her pointing and his glancing were any indication they were clearly discussing Sasuke. With his prior experience with females of pink hair, he was more than willing to let this calm down before he did anything. So he stood observing the rest of the crowd while musing that whatever gene caused that hair color must also cause them to be wholly obnoxious. Fitting in his opinion given what a blight on the eyes he found the color in the first place.

Out in the crowd were two dozen children. Well, given that he expected them to be roughly his own age give or take a year or two, and that he was a well-trained and accomplished killer at his age, it might not be proper to assume they are naive like the civilian population his age was. They did to a person carry themselves with the airs of nobility, something he had been trained to utilize himself when his mother was still breathing. None of them wore clothes of any style he was familiar with, even accounting for the eclectic taste of royalty and dignitaries that he could remember. The fact that they all wore a similar outfit indicated they were all members of the same faction, but the lack of any indicators as to what village they belonged to was a slight concern. Luckily they did not recognize him, which meant he must be somewhere where he was not known to be wanted (his face wasn't exactly something you would miss afterall).

At this musing it looked like whatever the little hellion was screaming about was well and concluded as she stomped over to him. He sneered at her as she closed her eyes and chanted something, he could tell it was a chant because of how regular the rhythm was compared to the conversation he heard earlier, and waved some flimsy stick in the air. Finally she pointed it at him and made some fidgeting motions before saying something to him. Apparently she realized he didn't understand after talking for close to a minute. Motioning with her hands she seemed to be indicating she wanted him to close his eyes.

As an Uchiha this could be seen as either an insult, or common sense. But as it was bordering on impossible for her to know he was an Uchiha he decided it was probably neither, and was likely a part of some local ritual, which would explain the chanting and the stick waving. Stretching out his chakra to see if he could perceive any threat he decided this was harmless enough and closed his eyes. He was more than alert enough to deal with any surprise attack at the moment, and acquiescing might make it easier to get cooperation.

It was when he noticed that he was able to smell whatever perfume it was she was wearing, and hear her breathing that he decided to open his eyes (he was not a man who appreciated violations of his personal space). To his 'expectation', as a trained Uchiha would 'never' be caught surprised or unawares of course, she pecked him on the lips. Growling slightly at the further invasion of his privacy (though he expected it of course), he was about to teach her what invasion of the privacy of a trained killer led to when his arm started pulsing... and then burning. Fire was certainly not an unusual sensation to the Uchiha, but this was less like a flame's burn than it did having acid eating at his arm from under his skin. Retreating to a safer position and putting distance between himself and the people until he could figure out what happened seemed prudent. He might have considered slaughtering them on the spot, but his time with Orochimaru and Kabuto taught him that you do not eliminate the only person who might have the antidote to whatever ailment they just infected you with. Making his way up and around the building with his hand on fire he pulled some wire from inside a pouch in his robes and began establishing a defensive position.

About halfway through his third layer to his wire-trap he was quickly forming the burning ceased entirely. Looking at his hand he saw it was undamaged, but that there were strange marking engraved into it. Having had close encounters of the cursed-seal kind he was not looking forward to whatever it was this thing did. Activating his Sharingan and abandoning his position on the wall he made his way to the roof, it had been close to a minute and a half since the burning started, and if they hadn't caught up to him by then they were not going to make it to the roof anytime soon. Staring at his arm he noticed that it glowed with chakra, but in a distinctive manner. While every individual's own chakra had some slight variation to it, and was actually unique, they were all shades of blue. In experience weird colors of chakra usually denoted that they were demonic, unnatural, or artificial. In his experience, however, they also always tended to be darker than normal chakra deep reds, black, purple, dark green. His hand was glowing a dull silver-gray. Not wanting to take a risk whatever this thing did he pulled out his sword while deciding whether or not cutting it off would eliminate its influence on him, as he did so he noticed it change from its previous dull silver to a glowing golden yellow.  
If it was smart enough to know he was drawing his weapon to cut it off, it was probably smart enough to have already invaded his system. Putting his sword back in its sheath he watched curiously as it faded back to its dulled color.

He experimented with the limits of the seal's ability to tell he was trying to circumvent it for a good five minutes before he sensed something large coming up behind him. As he calmly sidled away from the roof's edge towards the middle he spotted a giant blue... thing. It had the body of a lizard and wings? A dragon of some kind? Having lived in close proximity to the snake summoner he was aware that these creatures existed, but he felt no substantial chakra anywhere in the area, and could not see enough coming from the flying beast for it to be one of the beings from the Ryuchi cave. Letting out a screech it dived towards the roof, yet made no motion as to indicate that it would attack him.

From the back of the not-a-summon-beast dragon a small blue haired girl stepped off, motioning with a long staff towards herself. Clearly able to tell that words were useless she gestured for him to come closer. Preparing himself for another trick Sasuke sauntered over to the beast. He quickly ran through his head various techniques he could use should the beast make a move, and decided that an earth spear using the masonry of the roof was the best course. Dragons were resistant to the elements themselves, as well as great ability to ignore physical trauma, but the latter only applied to its scaled hide. With its wings spread open as they were he could easily spear through them with his technique before it could lift off. Deciding he had the advantage should an actual fight break out he approached the tiny girl.

When he was about two meters away, a sufficient reactionary gap should she or the dragon decide to attack, he stopped. She pointed at him, made a little motion with her hand that he thought was supposed to look like a talking mouth, then back at herself, then at her giant staff. If he was to guess she probably wanted to try and use some technique to speak with him, possibly some form of 'meaning-based' telepathy that would allow them to bypass their current language barrier. Grunting affirmatively, but also readying his stance he allowed he tried to observe the technique in order to copy it.

He soon realized that whatever it was she was doing, it wasn't molding chakra, or at least not any that was in her body. While he could see a reservoir of physical energy she could use to mold chakra with, she did not seem to be even trying to use it. Instead her staff began to glow white with what he he recognized as concentrated mental energy and then felt as if a pressure had been lifted from inside his neck.

"Understand?" the girl managed to convey a full sentence's worth of meaning with just that one word, spoken quietly, and a look, she was practically a girl after his own heart.

"Hn" his reply was similarly terse. She seemed to understand him well enough.

Looking at her dragon she spoke again "No eating" then waving her staff noncommittally in Sasuke's direction "Bring." Before he could even manage a protest the dragon had him in his jowls and floating towards the courtyard everything started in. He mentally noted that the beast was much faster than its size should have allowed given its lack of chakra. Finally on ground-level again, the dragon dropped him on the ground, and then licked him with a high pitched sound, which sounded surprisingly like it was cooing. Seeing what looked like a pleased expression on the thing's face he assumed he guessed correctly.

Dusting his clothes slightly and taking a posture every bit as regal as one would expect from the heir to a great clan he spoke "Who are you" with this he waved his arm around meaning he meant the whole crowd as a group and not her in particular "Where is this, and how did you bring me here?" With his Sharingan spinning he managed to portray exactly the right balance of appearances, somewhere between 'I am powerful enough that you are flies before me' and 'If I do not like what I hear your life is forfeit'.

The crowd murmured amongst themselves for a few moments before the bald headed man spoke up while stepping in front of the crowd. "I am Professor Colbert, you are currently in the west courtyard of the Tristain Academy of Magic, and it appears you have been summoned here by miss Valliere." at the last part he waved his staff to indicate the pink-haired girl. He stood and pondered for a moment, the word 'magic' was peculiar. Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were commonly called that by civilians who didn't understand chakra, as were the various occult and spiritual techniques practiced by many religious sects. But even those too used chakra, whatever superficial resemblance the abilities these people used had to the various abilities he was familiar with they definitely did not utilize chakra. Tristain is likely the name of the province or country he was currently in, but he had never heard of such a place. Though geography was never his favorite subject, he did his due diligence when they learned the layout of world in the academy. Tristain was certainly not anywhere in the elemental nations, nor the explored surrounding territories. The fact that nobody seemed to be acting as if they understood what the Sharingan was indicated that they had no knowledge of the Uchiha.

Finally focusing his attention on the one thing he could actually understand of all of it he directed his attention to the pink-haired girl and spoke narrowing his eyes. Unsealing two scrolls from inside the seal hidden inside his belt-sash he quickly pulled them out to their full length memorizing each and every name on both of them. After little more than a second he snapped them both back shut and had them re-sealed where he got them from. "Valliere is not a name of anyone who has a contract with either the Hawks, nor the Snakes, and I know for a fact that my family is the only one who has contract with the Cats. I will give you one chance to either explain yourself, if your explanation is not satisfactory I suggest you dismiss me at once. Uchiha do not appreciate being trifled with." He felt he may have been laying it on a bit thick, but negotiating from a position of strength, even a fake position of strength, is what he did. It appeared that he spoke with enough authority, and that what he spoke of was at least as incomprehensible to her as what they told him.

Shaking slightly miss Valliere spoke "H-how dare you! You are nothing but a familiar, I have summoned you here and you will obey me!"

Sasuke calmly drew his blade, intentionally allowing it to scrape against its sheath so as to cause it to ring loudly. With a quick flick of the wrist its full meter and a half was extended at her, and with a small burst of chakra it and the arm holding it crackled with electricity. Staring at her again and preparing a large distraction genjutsu that could cover the whole crowd he literally radiated chakra, and even these people could feel it. Taking a line that would not seem out of place coming from Manda's playbook he spoke "Having been one who was new to summoning of other beings I will forgive the slight that is an order this once. Should you purport to order me again, even if you were to offer me this whole crowd as sacrifices it would not suffice. Tell me for what reason you have summoned me here, or I will take your head as payment."

Apparently his bluff was working, the girl shivered and looked like she would either cry or piss herself. The bald man took on what was clearly a protective posture, one that left little opening, yet was so subtle that a less experienced fighter would miss it entirely. "As this girl's teacher I offer my sincere apology for her improper behavior" at this the girl stopped shivering and bubbled with anger instead, but before she could interrupt Colbert held up his hand to silence her. "Here at Tristain Academy we have our second year students perform a ritual. This ritual consists of summoning a familiar" pausing for a moment Colbert could clearly tell the young man before him was not aware of what he meant. "A familiar is a kind of partner, usually an animal or magical beast." at this he directed Sasuke's attention to a crowd of various creatures, dogs, rabbits, what looked like a lizard with a flaming tail, and the dragon from earlier. "It appears" bringing Sasuke's attention back to himself "That miss Valliere has summoned... You."

Sasuke pondered on this for a moment before responding. "I have no intention with partnering with a child for any reason. So feel free to send me back and find someone else." His tone was finally one of disinterest and boredom.

"That." There was a long pause as the professor's expression melted to one of remorse and even a bit of guilt. "Is not possible." raising his hand to try and placate the red-eyed boy before he could attack. "Not because we want to keep you here. It just has never been done." Colbert sighed, and in doing so let show that he was in fact a man in his middle ages, beginning to feel the weight of his time in life. "I have never heard of a human being summoned as a familiar before, and normally the creatures summoned have no interest in returning. So it just simply has never been done." Seeing the furrowing of the boy's brow he attempted to placate him enough to de-escalate the situation "If you would come with me to the headmaster I could see if he knows of anything that could be helpful."

Sighing in his own head, but showing nothing, Sasuke agreed with a shake of his head. Putting away his sword. He knew of a couple of haphazard methods he could try and use, but given the distance it was likely to require he did not want to deal with risking it if there might be some way they could just undo it themselves. His studies under Orochimaru left him knowledgeable enough about summoning and space manipulation techniques that unless they happened to be just at the borders of the elemental nations, and he doubted that, the chakra it would require to transport him would be more than he could produce. With a flourish he put his sword away and deactivated his Sharingan. He was in a foreign land with virtually no resources at his disposal, conserving chakra was going to be his best course of action.

Professor Colbert dismissed all the non Valliere students and then escorted the girl and her familiar to see old Osmand.

* * *

"Hmm, I see." Old Osmand stroked his beard as he tried to figure out what to do about the human familiar. Though he didn't actually say anything about it, it was clear that Colbert thought that young Sasuke was a threat of some kind, and that if they tried to force him to do anything against his will it would end poorly for everyone. The boy did not appear to be lying, though he was clearly holding back from the full truth. Nonetheless his demeanor definitely was in line with his statements indicating he was essentially nobility, and his small demonstration with electricity in the courtyard confirmed he had some kind of aptitude for magic. The boy's stance indicated he was experienced with combat, and what he saw through his clairvoyance magic during the incident earlier indicated that he would likely be more than capable of slaughtering his students should he desire it. If not for the risk of violence and bloodshed he would have tried to just let things work their course.

Unfortunately such a convenient approach would not suffice here. Still, a long life and experience meant he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to buy some time to find out more.

"Ms Longueville, would you please fetch me parchment and quill? Also prepare for a missive to be sent to the Valliere estate as well as the crown." At the least part Louise stiffened, needing to contact her family could not possibly indicate anything good. "Ms. Valliere, do to the uniqueness of having summoned a human, and one who appears to be of noble birth, we will need to consult with your family as well as with the house of Lords."

* * *

He and his summoner (He never called Kakashi, Sarutobi, Orochimaru, or Tsunade master. If that girl thought he would bow to her because she summoned him she was gravely mistaken) made it back to her room around dusk, after a slight fiasco where he was about ready to flay her for insinuating he was some sort of servant who should be dressing her he managed to settle into a corner of the room over by the bookshelf. Living underground in laboratory facilities and days of camping leave one more than ready to sleep sitting against a wall.

As he usually did he meditated and performed some light chaka exercises to relax himself before he went to sleep. While meditating he pondered his options. His first instinct when he arrived was to simply flee, he would be more than able to kill anyone who decided to throw away their life pursuing him. After being branded however... That option became less useful, he still didn't know what exactly these marking could do to him, and having lived in Konoha where the Hyuuga clan resided he was all too familiar with the idea of a mark that could kill him. Given the behavior of the girl who marked him, and her teachers, it was unexpected enough that he was anything other than a slave. The idea that he would defy her in the first place being so foreign that even if these 'runes' as they called them could in fact be used to ensure his compliance, they simply did not know how to use them properly. Unfortunately these were nothing like any form of sealing technique he had ever seen, and if it did have some sort of unpleasant functions it is much more likely that someone would be able to find it long before he could pick it apart and get rid of it.

All of that of course was the second biggest reason behind his deciding not to simply flee. The much more important reason was simply that there was no reason to. His clan was avenged with his brother's death, and he honestly didn't care about Konoha one way or another. He was now well and truly a free man with nothing to shackle him anywhere. His primary objective in life had been met, and his other... Well he had plenty of time for that so long as he didn't put himself in a position to be murdered. Given that he had yet to sense a single person who could possibly be seen as a ninja, and the old headmaster's complete lack of understanding when he mentioned that he was a shinobi, he was confident that nobody who might think of hunting him was going to be nearby anytime soon.

Looking out the window at that thought to see if he could roughly grasp his location based on where the constellations hung, he was slightly startled to see two moons pink and blue. For the first time since the massacre he actually laughed with some amount of mirth. Two moons, and neither of them a dull white and grey? Shaking his head and finally drifting off to sleep he had a strangely pleasant thought "The Uchiha, first travelers to another world."

* * *

AN: So, this is the 'real' chapter one. This story popped into my head while trying to come up with something for other stories, and it niggled until I had a few pages of it down, so I decided I might as well try it out until I either completely ran out of steam for it, or managed to actually somehow complete it. Originally I wanted to have the titular hero of Naruto (Because that goofball is easily one of my favourite characters ever) be the one brought here... and it just wouldn't take. I couldn't decide on when I wanted him to get sucked in, and then still had a really hard time writing his personality in without it just reading poorly... Then I decided to try other characters one by one to get a feel for what I was doing wrong, and after getting something down with Tenten being summoned by tiffania mid-way through the series, I decided to take a crack at Sasuke... It just took a life of its own from there. Honestly I am not a fan of Sasuke, he is very Orochimaru-esque to me. Unlike pretty much the rest of the cast Sasuke is a character I would never want to meet, hang out with, or be within a hundred thousand miles of, and I doubt he would make for good conversation... Yet he is just so fleshed out and has such a distinct personality and mannerisms that it is hard not to at least like him as a character (Kiba being the exact opposite for me, someone who seems like an absolute joy to be around and who really we know a lot 'about' but we don't know HIM or who he IS. Seriously I would argue that Shino is more fleshed out than Kiba, and he has had much less air-time).

It's only one chapter in, so I doubt it shows. But I am trying (the key word being try) to portray the Sasuke right after he kills his brother as a surprisingly sympathetic character. His journey is 'over' with the avenging of his clan, and I snagged him right before Tobi could bring on the mind-fuck and make him get angry at yet another group of people. Hopefully I will get to actually explore the idea of being totally single-minded and needing to shift away from that lifestyle. The last scene here is meant to demonstrate that he actually does, and always did, have emotions and could laugh and feel good, but his goal was his everything so he just ignored it. With his self-deluding obsession gone his control over himself is surprisingly fragile, and at least in private where nobody is watching his stoic facade is cracking.

I mentally titled this chapter "Learn French in 10 minutes", because of the absurdity translation magic... Sadly I am not so good an author as to find a better way to implement it, and I scrapped close to a whole page of Sasuke and Louise getting progressively angrier at each other until she blew him up trying to 'silence' him and made him able to understand her because of it. It just wasn't funny, and it took too many liberties with Sasuke's character for the sake of comedy, so instead we get this kind of shoehorned "oh they can just do that in that world, because I said so" approach.


	3. Ch 2 The sound of coconuts

The first week after being summoned was surprisingly uneventful, quiet even. It seems that his initial show of force put enough fear into the teachers and students alike that he was left mostly alone. The only exceptions being Colbert, and Louise. Due to the circumstances Valliere's education was put on hold, and instead she was instructed to teach Sasuke the language. Telepathy spells were all well and good for communicating, but needing a mage to revive the spell when it falls was a rather tedious affair. It also didn't resolve the issue that Sasuke was not capable of reading their script. While never one who truly appreciated academics, any new skill was one that Sasuke was happy to acquire. Luckily, while progress on speaking the language was slow due to the huge differences in syllables used that he was not practiced in forming with his mouth, he could now say he was mostly fluent in reading and writing all of the four major languages of the land. While some may have laughed at the rather mundane usage of the Sharingan to memorize the basic script and hand motions to write in it, nobody would argue that it certainly saved time. It was also surprisingly helpful with research, as a quick flip through the pages of a book would allow him to forever recall the words on the page in perfect detail. Photographic memory certainly had its perks.

Message back from the Valliere's arrived just this morning, which meant that they would be heading out around noon. Apparently the trip was actually only a couple days away by horse, but apparently the Duke was out on business and needed to arrive home before he could reply to the message. Sasuke for once did not mind, as it gave him ample time to read up on the Valliere's as well as the Royal family who it seemed he would be doing business with shortly. He had to use genjutsu to get access to everything he was looking for, as apparently the records of higher nobles is restricted to only those of sufficient noble rank, but it was quite worthwhile. While officially the Duke was head of the household, in reality the family was actually under the control of Karin Desire de la Valliere. Apparently Karin was a well accomplished soldier, being one of the few here to earn a moniker for her skills, the Heavy Wind. According to the records of her service and her battle record she was probably the single most distinguished soldier in all of Tristain's history. Her mastery of wind magic is said to be peerless, and her swordsmanship is supposed to be among the best. Reading about Karin made him have two nearly simultaneous thoughts "How in the world did such a powerful woman have such a brat for a kid?" and "I want to fight her". She was apparently not a woman to be trifled with.

One of the servants came by Louise's room to attend to them while being escorted to a carriage that was prepared for them. Seeing that the horse was not going to be moving any faster than he could, Sasuke decided that now was as good a time as any to get some exercise in. While he had made it a point to continue his daily sets of muscle strengthening and calisthenic stretches and maneuvers, a week was a surprisingly long time for him to go without either a fight, or an all-out spar of some kind. While it looked like the man with the reigns, as well as Louise, were quite baffled at his ability to effortlessly keep up with the horse he was rather bored. Even without his enhanced abilities he could readily tell that there was nobody else for quite some distance ahead of them, this particular trail was not well traveled, and the underbrush was almost completely undisturbed. The journey was apparently two days, knowing he would have all of tomorrow to regain his chakra he decided now was as good a time as any to make sure his skills all worked properly with whatever these runes were doing to him.

Starting with an illusion over both the driver and Louise to make them simply not ignore what he was doing, he began running through hand seals to try out his ninjutsu. Anyone who happened to see a young man blowing fireballs and bursts of lightning around a forest would immediately run in fear that a wildfire was soon to be started, but growing up in the village hidden in the leaves had some perks, particularly that you were quite aware of just how to train without tearing up the wilderness around you. His chakra did not seem to be hindered in any way. His elemental manipulation was not the same. It was as if all the elements were more 'distant' than normal. While it did not require more chakra to power the techniques, controlling and merging with the element he was using required much more concentration than usual. It was almost as if rather than accepting his chakra and merging with it, the elements needed to be forced to obeying his will. Correcting for it was not particularly difficult, but it could pose a problem in a do-or-die situation where he had to react purely on reflex.

After working through a few dozen techniques of various elements he felt he was more than able to compensate for the change in how to form the elements. This brought him to the skill he was most interested in, but also somewhat worried would fail. Quietly chanting "Kuchiyose no Jutsu" he attempted to call forth one of the smaller snakes. Chakra smoke, and then nothing. Making sure it wasn't just that that it was a problem like with elemental manipulation he tried a few times calling for specific snakes with varying amounts of chakra. When they all fell flat he even tried for the hawks. None answered his call. If it was merely a matter of distance then he should have gotten something, a baby, an egg, a fledgling. But it was as if he had never signed a contract to begin with.

It was worrisome. While he didn't particularly care for the hawks, and ever since getting Manda killed the snakes were displeased with him, it was a valuable skill. It was now worthless.

He decided now was as good a time as any to examine his equipment. After counting up his supplies, and satisfied he had a full count of everything, and that he hadn't lost anything in the transition to Halkegenia. Midway into working his way through his last scroll it struck him that it was quite strange that he was able to utilize the storage seals properly, yet his summoning didn't work. Summoning as an art was usually considered a combination of both sealing techniques, and space/time ninjutsu, in fact Orochimaru had stated that it would be much more proper to think of all seals as themselves a specialized branch of spatial techniques.

Both of his actual storage scrolls were full, which meant he had a full complement of medical and camping equipment. Thankfully he had not used up all of his weapons during his fight, though he was quite low on both shuriken and explosive tags. Should these 'talks' turn sour, he supposed he was about as prepared as he could prefer in an escape scenario. After running through some basic flexibility exercises the horses started whinnying, a sign it was time to stop for the day. Looking up and noticing the sun was soon to set, he decided that this was as good a spot as any to set up camp. Letting go of his hold on the genjutsu keeping the driver and his summoner from paying him mind he cracked open the door to inform her that he was going to be setting up camp.

It was nearly ten minutes after his tent was out that it occurred to him that the driver had made his way inside the carriage. Somehow he wasn't surprised when the girl poked her head out a window and questioned on whether he was going to be joining them in the carriage. She looked rather confused at the tent. Sasuke nearly snorted, even the daimyo were well versed and practiced in setting up camp. The idea that they were not even going to set up a perimeter or preliminary defenses defied all logic to the shinobi.

Deciding he would get better sleep if he was thoroughly exhausted, he used what remained of his chakra and manipulated the energies around him and inside of him until finally the strain of the twin Sharingan staring at the twin moons put him to sleep.

* * *

Shortly after dawn the camp was gone, packed up and sealed away. About an hour later they were finally on the move again. Sasuke decided that while riding was rather boring, seeing if he could pry anything from Louise about her mother could only help.

Knocking on the carriage door he heard an angry "What?" come from the other side.

"I have questions." Luckily his summoner had learned quickly that her attitude would not be tolerated, and that if he had questions it would be best to just answer them as best she could. While he had never actually harmed her, he made it clear that he was not a man who failed to get what he wanted, and that things that kept him from getting what he wanted tended to end up dead. Or burned. Or destroyed. Sometimes all three, and not always in that order. She quickly opened up the door and let him in.

Sitting down and making himself as comfortable as proper posture would allow, showing weakness or dereliction in his 'noble bearing' would only hurt him at this point. He had no doubts that her mother would interrogate the girl before he actually met with her himself.

Playing the part he had been somewhat groomed for before the massacre was actually quite painful to remember, as it was his mother and aunts who had taught him all about how to act and behave properly. He may have been the 'spare' son, but it was expected that he would play a role in both village and clan politics, so he was at least familiar with the idea. He let the sound of galloping from the horse ring through the silence in the cabin in order to unsettle the girl before he asked his questions. When he felt that she was suitably nervous, not so much as to keep her from answering but enough that it would be difficult to lie to him, he finally broached the topic.

"Tell me about your mother."

Louise wore an odd expression, apparently not thinking he would ask about her family of all things. Usually his questions had something to do with the military structure, or what the history of different areas was, or needing terms explained so that he could continue his reading usefully. Before they left he was mostly asking her about casting spells of all things, which was actually what finally made her realize that amazing abilities or not, he was no mage. At least not in the human sense. He wouldn't explain how this "chakra" worked, but given what she had seen and his question about magic, it was probably closer to Elven or Spirit magic than what nobles used. Seeing that he was serious, but not sure where to start she decided that a biography was the best way to go.

"My mother is Karin Desire de la Valliere, wife to my father Duke de la Valliere. She was a commander and a soldier in the military before she settled down and had me and my sisters..." Taking a slight pause to read his expression she saw what looked like him prompting her to continue "Ever since Eleanor was born she has taken to essentially managing the family's finances and other activities such as overseeing our staff and hiring and disciplining the serfs on our lands" out of things to think to say she spoke with a voice that indicated she was done with what she had to say. After a moment Sasuke responded.

Apparently what he had read was accurate, as she confirmed basically what he had read about her by her statements. Still there were things that no book or biography could hope to tell you about a person. "What was she-." He paused, giving an appearance of trying to find the right words, which wasn't wholly inaccurate since he was still a novice at the language from an experience standpoint. "-like, as a mother?"

His expression should have been unreadable, there was no twitch, no change in how his muscles contracted, his tone and pitch were even. Too even. While Sasuke always sounded like he was forcing himself when he talked, she was sure he just wasn't very sociable, there was something about him that caused her just an inkling into his mind. He wasn't asking an impersonal question about facts that he would analyze, he actually wanted, needed, some kind of closure from this.

"Honestly?" she looked around conspiratorially and then whispered "Kind of brutal..."

Sasuke was taken aback at this, though his demeanor didn't show it. Somehow he had been expecting, perhaps hoping, that she was as kind and gentle as his own mother. His mother had been ex-anbu, specifically an assassin. She had slain no less than a hundred men with none the wiser, and in the war had been attached to some of the search-and-destroy squads. She was the nicest mother one could have hoped for. She was gentle, loving, caring, even a bit coddling. There was a part of him, though he might not know it, that really hoped that all mothers were like that. Or at least that all soldiers-turned-mothers were like that.

If his mother was merely just another in a long tradition of mothers who were softened by their experience in war, and appreciated their children because of it. If it was normal for a woman to see bloodshed and turn out as kind as his mother had been. Then maybe he could view what happened to her as something less of a tragedy, he could maybe have her death be like he had always tried to paint it to himself, just another one of the masses of slaughtered Uchiha. If it turned out that she was not just another Uchiha... If she was not just 'another' mother... If she was actually something special, something unique, a battle-hardened warrior whose heart was softened by family, if this was truly something that didn't happen often.

He wasn't sure he wanted to think about it. His brother had slaughtered the clan, but in all honesty he could admit to himself that as far as people went the Uchiha weren't exactly the most likable. Though his father had said otherwise, the reason why people considered the Uchiha arrogant wasn't because they were just jealous. It was because they were right. It took him years of reflection, but Sasuke knew it was probably indisputable. As a group his family had been arrogant, if he dyed his hair and changed his eye-color, Neji probably would have fit right in with the Uchiha. If his mother was somehow some kind of pseudo-saint by managing to be so kind and loving when the odds should have been so stacked against her, then it didn't make her death just another body on a pile stories high.

It meant her death weighed more heavily than Sasuke had considered, and if her death was a greater tragedy than he thought, then how did he know that this wasn't true of the others slaughtered. How did he know that merely killing Itachi was enough to avenge their deaths. What if, what if all this time his goal needed to be much greater than that in order to avenge their loss? What if he had been too selfish in his desire to kill his brother to realize this until now.

Sasuke's thoughts spiraled on in this manner, and he was woken from his internal musings by a particularly hard bump that caused his summoner to squeak out in surprise. He didn't realize it but he had been staring at Louise with a blank gloss in his eyes for some time.

"Could you explain what you mean?" he finally managed to choke out. It felt like he was just barely choking it out anyway, someone listening would not be able to tell the difference.

"Well, mum has always been. Not cold really. More, harsh?" Louise seemed pleased at her amended descriptor "There's a saying in the scripture, 'God's soldiers are always at war'. If you had never met any soldiers other than my mother, you'd think it was true of the regular military as well. 'The Rule of Steel' she calls it."

"Rule of Steel?" Sasuke honestly thought that such a name was fitting for the personality of a distinguished warrior.

"It's kind of a philosophy of life I suppose." Louise continued "You must control yourself, and temper your emotions, you must be cold and strong, unbending and uncracking, like well crafted steel. Emotions themselves are blades that wound deep, and must be tempered and pounded until they are suitable to used productively. The blade must be polished and maintained, constant vigil kept." The girl's voice was loud and stern. He was absolutely sure that she was imitating her mother's demeanor, and on the small girl's less than imposing frame it almost looked like she was mocking what she was saying.

"Hn. I see that you do not follow her teachings." He said it so clearly and solemnly that it was clearly just a fact of life he was reciting 'The sky is blue', or 'There are two moons'.

"What!? Of course I believe in the Rule of Steel!" Louise flared with indignation at the blatant accusation that she had disregarded the values she strived to live by, and that were handed down to her from her mother. For the first time since his arriving here, Sasuke actually smirked at her outburst rather than telling her to stop yelling before he did something about it.

It was not common knowledge, but the Uchiha were not immune to humor. They just preferred cold irony, and subtle wordplay more than anything else. For anyone who managed to actually stay in their company for extended periods, they eventually realized that making a joke and having everybody think you were dead-serious was considered the highest form of humor within the clan. It was sometimes referred to as the 'art of the humorless joke', which was in many ways a self-explaining joke played on the younger Uchiha by their elders, the children believing them serious whilst they bit their cheek to keep from laughing at the absurdity of it. Clearly the fine art of 'not-humor' was lost on the pink-haired girl.

Having found out the most important thing, that the records he read through were accurate, he spent the rest of the ride prodding her about various people and events. Fortunately, not much else stuck out as particularly noteworthy, and even the things that were would not help him.

It was just before dusk, though likely several hours before sunset, when they reached the gated doors and palissade that marked the borders of the Valliere Estate. When they arrived they were let in, and exited the carriage. When he saw that they were escorting them to a stable he, as politely as he could manage, declined on the offer to ride. He had been forced onto his fair share of the beasts when he was younger, and he could feel his legs chafing just by staring at them. A coward he was not, but 'once burned twice shy' was fine wisdom regardless.

He may have regretted it slightly, but only slightly, when he realized that it would be another five hours by horseback at a brisk pace to the actual house from the gates. The fact that the Estate grounds, which he learned was merely the property that the family and their serfs lived on, rather than the entire holdings and properties, was likely comparable or bigger than many small countries in the elemental nations did not escape him.

* * *

AN: Not particularly happy with this chapter, though that is expected. I usually get to churn out a few thousand words all at once when I start a story and then hit a roadblock and have a hard time figuring out what to do next... This chapter is that roadblock, hopefully the only one. Not much happens, a little exposition, some delving into the mechanics of the world (ohmygod summoning doesn't work, his easy-out to getting home is gone, and communicating with it just became all but non-existent), also some introspection and character development. Personally I feel like lately most of my writing is rather ham-fisted and unsubtle, but I think that this chapter while a little boring itself, does what it needs to do (namely get us an in-universe explanation for why he knows things about this world, and gets him to the destination where at least the next chapter or two will take place, though getting in some character development is always nice).

I was debating on whether to put this here and I decided 'why not'. So here is some crack that was inspired by this chapter, it may or may not be canon to this story, but it won't matter either way.

/ Omake /

Before the Sharingan existed, and before they were ninja, the Uchiha were a clan of comedians.

All forms of comedy were theirs to behold, and they were masters of the craft. It was due to this thorough knowledge and talent for humor that the clan developed a distorted sense of what the best forms of it were. Eventually they were led to what might be seen as a sort of post-modern view of what is funny, and they were the undisputed kings of this form (though mostly because nobody had known there was a dispute, something that given the circumstances the clan took great pleasure in).

Amongst the Uchiha greats were Madara, who convinced the world that he murdered his own brother and took his eyes in order to keep his sight from fading, and Obito who had convinced no less than two Hokage and several dozen elite ninjas that he was a lollygagging fool of a child. They however pale in comedic genius to the greatest prodigy the clan had ever known.

Itachi Uchiha stood over the bleeding bodies of his mother and father. To any who looked upon it, it would seem a strange sight, his hands and body covered in their blood, yet they were smiling. It was a strange thing that was noticed by the ANBU assigned to clean up after the massacre, every victim's face was contorted into an expression of laughter or pure joy. Which held a special place of creepy in the hearts of the black-ops, as an Uchiha wearing anything other than a scowl or smirk was unusual. It would be generations later, upon finding of special hidden documents, that anyone discovered that the whole massacre was a setup for the greatest of all 'jokes'.

The pinnacle of Uchiha humor, making the world believe that the heir had killed off all but his younger brother, and that the brother took revenge by killing the elder sibling. The younger brother played his part perfectly, without ever knowing he was doing it. Itachi Uchiha tested not his own limits when he slaughtered the clan, but the limits of the entire Uchiha line, in the art of the Humorless Joke.

It is said that the original Uchiha funny-men were made, not born, by the hands and ingenuity of their straight-man counterpart. Sasuke Uchiha would never know it, but he would forever remain the punchline in the greatest achievement in not-humor to ever exist in the elemental nations, the jewel in the top of the Uchiha crown. Humor was not a past-time to the Uchiha, it was a way of life. /Omake end/


	4. Ch 3: You fail intrigue forever

Waiting at the front door of the manse was a veritable battalion of servants. He counted at least thirty maids, twelve butlers, four footmen, half a dozen guards, and someone who he assumed was the Majordomo. He could honestly say he was surprised at how much effort was put into simply welcoming home the 3rd daughter and some person they knew nothing about. The fact that Louise did not seem surprised at the reception indicated that this was not above and beyond the norm either. For the first time in his life, he actually felt that he might be out of his depth, and that playing at being a nobleman might have been a horrible mistake. Still he resigned himself to the fact that his only option was to double-down, and he would just need to make it work somehow.

The oldest looking of the servants opened the door for them, making some sort of comment about how he was glad to see Louise was doing well. He led them down the main hallway towards a set of large double-doors. Dinner had only just been served, so they were led in and waved towards the seats nearest the door.

The table was easily forty feet long and close to twelve across. It looked to be crafted out of a single piece of wood, and the legs looked like they were attached due to being from the same original piece, rather than being bolted, glued, or otherwise fastened on. Given a quick glance, it looked like the chairs in the room were all crafted in a similar manner, and he would not be surprised if they were all actually from the same piece of wood the table was from. The sound of the silverware indicated that it was all actual solid silver, and of a very fine grade. The plates and dishes all appeared to be made of precious metals themselves, and the serving plates were actually adorned rather tastefully with what were either bright garnets or dull rubies, and of large size regardless.

He didn't bother looking at the tapestries and other decorations, given the table and utensils it was safe to assume that every single item in the room, if not the entire mansion, was of excellent craftsmanship and of the finest materials. Given the size of the room, and just how much there was in it he would guess that this room alone housed enough treasure and valuables to fund one of the great ninja villages for several months, possibly even stretching into years. If the entire house was even a tenth as nice as this one room, then there was likely more wealth within it than the entirety of the land of fire, daimyo's personal property included.

It occurred to him that the earlier group at the door was probably considered 'small', and that it was not some special contingent for their own daughter. Rather it was just who they had greeting anyone and everyone, regardless of status. If they really wanted to impress someone it would likely have been several times larger, and with much nicer looking uniforms for the special occasion.

It took only the time to walk to his chair and sit down to make all of these observations and assessments. That amount of time was apparently too long. The Duchess stared at him, with the slightest of smirks tugging at her lips. Sasuke could tell from where he sat that even that not-smirk was intentional, and that it was actually her way of taunting him. Without a word she had effectively said "I saw you sizing up my home's wealth and prestige, and I can already tell you are beyond impressed, and it amuses me greatly. Now sit down like a good child and eat."

She was not the only one who knew how to speak without talking however. Taking his seat he held his posture aloof, and after taking a bite he kept his mouth in a half-scowl, half-smirk of his own. Looking back at Karin while eating slowly. Seeing her own forced smirk fall it seems she got his message "I am not impressed at something so meager as this, rather I am more surprised you would choose to be so lax with your spending and use it so frivolously. Nonetheless I thank you for the unnecessarily extravagant meal you put before me."

Through the course of the meal he held a silent conversation with the head of the Valliere house in this way. At the end of it all he decided that whatever it was she was trying to assess she was satisfied in what she found. When the meal was over Karin called Louise and her other daughters to come with her and left the room.

The Duke de la Valliere called for one of the male servants, and spoke to Sasuke directly. "Come with me, we have much to discuss." Not being one to waste his own time, Sasuke acceded and followed.

* * *

After a short walk they arrived in a room that looked to be a study of some sort. It was split into two parts, a main room with a handful of chairs in front of a desk, and what was essentially a small hallway filled with bookshelves. The Duke took a seat at the desk, while the butler who followed them poured what looked to be some sort of dark drink. A second glass was poured for Sasuke, and from the smell he could tell it was alcoholic. Seeing the expectant gaze of the Duke, Sasuke clinked glasses in what he had read was the custom, before sipping at his own glass. The Duke then gave his servant a subtle nod, and at that the other man left the room.

"Excuse me for a second." In no time at all a wand was in the older man's hand and he chanted a short incantation. The room lit up with glyphs and despite how foreign it was compared to chakra, Sasuke could feel the magic pulsing throughout the room. Noticing the skeptical look on Sasuke's face he gave a disarming smile and simply said "Precautions. You might not know it, but I am technically part of the royal line. You'd be amazed at how secretive that makes a person, and the kinds of precautions that are necessary." In a show of undignified behavior, the Duke actually propped himself up to sit on the windowsill behind his desk than in his chair. "The spell I just cast is to activate a series of enchantments and wards in this room. For as long as I maintain the spell, no sound can escape this room, and all forms of magic other than my own will be negated. Also, should there currently be anyone who did not partake in the potion that was mixed with your wine just now, they would find themselves in the most unpleasant state of paralysis, with lightning coursing through their insides." Waving his arm around the room "As you can see nobody here is in a seizing fit. What we say here will not leave this room unless one of the two of us tells it." Giving a slightly contemplative expression followed by a goofy smile he added "Also the spell makes cleaning out spiders and such rather easy, since they too get shocked by the spell, I dare say this is probably the only room in the whole estate that will never worry about infestation."

Sasuke could actually appreciate such a design, though he had his suspicions it was not as foolproof as the man expected. Sasuke attempted to get a feel for anything hidden the man was trying to say, but it appeared that he was not as gifted in speaking without words as his wife. Seeing as the Duke paid no mind to Sasuke's subtle nonverbal changes, shifting of posture and the like, the young man decided that he would have to conduct this conversation verbally. "Why the need for secrecy?"

"Turns out that even discussing things that 'might' be heretical is blasphemy." At this he slid out a secret compartment built into the wall of the windowsill, inside was a handful of glasses, and a varied assortment of drinks. Pulling out a clear crystal bottle with a dark brown liquid inside, he unscrewed the crystal top, and poured himself a glass. Whatever it was in that bottle, it was strong. Sasuke could smell the alcohol from where he sat. The blonde man sat staring at his drink swirling it around in the glass before speaking once again. "I gathered from the message sent by Old Osmand that you were summoned by Louise during the springtime ritual, and that prior to the summoning you didn't even know our language let alone anything about the country in which you currently reside. He also mentioned that you talked of various things that he had no knowledge or understanding of." Standing up and fingering the tomes on the rack next to his desk he asked "How much do you know of the Brimiric history?" Finally finding the book he was looking for he sat down and flipped through it, clearly waiting for a reply.

It may have been something in the drink, but Sasuke didn't even worry about how to phrase things before he started talking. "Sometime several thousand years ago a young boy was born in the holy land. Brimir ru rumiru Yuru viri vee Varutori. This boy had incredible magical power, and was able to use the holy element 'Void'. Humanity was banished from the holy land, and it was Brimir's actions that saved humanity time and again. When great tragedies and dangers would arise it was Brimir who would lead the fights against them, supposedly his final goal was to retake the holy-land from the elves. He was the founder of Magic, and it is his blessing that allows nobles to wield the elements. As such it is Brimir's will that those blessed with magic shall rule over all others, and his own children who were themselves gifted mages created the great nations."

The old blonde nodded his head at this "That is an accurate enough understanding of the events. Though it misses what I need to talk about." Pausing dramatically "In addition to gifting magic to man, he also invented the familiar summoning ritual. It is a sacred rite passed on from him to his children, and from them to other mages. It is said that the summoning ritual is the only Void magic that has not yet been lost, and that it is only Brimir's ingenuity that allows us to still utilize the fifth element."

"I still don't understand why that would require us to speak in private like this." Sasuke replied.

The Duke played with his mustache and closed his eyes while nodding affirmatively, giving a light chuckle "True enough, true enough. Except that it is at least somewhat wrong. While the summoning ritual is without a doubt Void magic, the fifth element is not actually lost like the scripture says." Finally opening his eyes, he noticed that Sasuke did not appear surprised by this at all. "In fact, every one of the royal families has from time to time sired a void mage, though usually they are secreted away, being cast as unable to use magic or married off to a life where they would never need to use it. The church has a tendency to not look kindly on those who can supposedly use the sacred element. It was even decreed that hiding of a void mage from the church would be considered heresy worthy of an inquisition. Needless to say it would be trouble if it were to get out that there were void mages popping up in the royal families." He paused and gave Sasuke the most serious look since they met "Based on how you interacted with my dear Karin, I would say it looks like you did your research on us. You were too composed for someone who didn't know what he was walking in to. Tell me, what do you know of the Valliere family history?" A smile crept onto his lips when he noticed that Sasuke's expression gave away that he had caught the young man off-guard.

Regaining his composure at the revelation that without even speaking an actual word he was found out by the man he had disregarded as irrelevant from the start. It appeared that the Duke was not some figurehead who was at his wife's mercy like Sasuke had originally pegged him for. Deciding it would just be simpler to go along, and that there was nothing to be gained by lying he responded. "The Valliere Duchy is ruled by the, I believe your word is cadet branch, of the royal line. Apparently from the bastard child of one of the first kings of Tristain, though I could not find any specifics on which one. It has been headed by multiple actual lines as older ones died out, but always by the illegitimate sons and daughters of the royal family. While officially the family and estate are owned, managed, and run by the Duke at all times, the current Duchess is known to actually handle the affairs financial and otherwise. The Duchess is Karin Desiree de la Valliere, formerly Karin Desiree de Maillart. She was a guard for the current Queen, and served a long and distinguished service in the military, including in the Manticore knights. Her runic name is the Heavy Wind, and she is known for being arguably the strongest mage to have lived since the founder himself, and without question the strongest wind-mage from Tristain." Deciding not to hold anything back "She also lives both her personal and professional life by the same code, the 'Rule of Steel', and is known to be unflinchingly loyal to the crown. Also apparently her youngest daughter thinks of her as 'harsh'." Sasuke looked at the older man as he said the last part, he had been hoping that maybe he could get a rise out of the man with the knowledge of his wife and youngest daughter's relationship.

Duke Valliere nodded knowingly as Sasuke concluded. "Quite good, you clearly have done a good job finding what you did. Probably just as thorough and correct as I would expect an heir to the Gramonts or the Wardes, and that is saying something." Being compared in capability to two of the highest ranking noble families in the country, even if only in terms of investigative skill, was quite the compliment. The way it was given so freely indicated that it was both true, and that the Duke was not, and would never be, impressed by Gramonts or the Wardes. "But it is only so-so, nonetheless. You see the Valliere house is not, and has never been, the house for the illegitimate children of the royal family. It is actually where the royal line secrets away its family's Void mages, and their children."

Sasuke was immediately suspicious. "... Why would you tell something so dangerous to me then? You don't know who I am, or what I would do with that information."

The Duke Chuckled and shook his head. "I am surprised you didn't already figure this out, given that you somehow got access to my family's records. For which I must congratulate you by the way considering that they are part of the absolutely most-restricted archives at the Academy. The reason I can trust you with this is because your revealing it would likely never be believed, and even if you did it would only send the church after you anyway. Seeing as you are the familiar of a heretical wielder of the holy element.

And that was the rub. Louise was a Void user. Which meant that revealing the family's history, if it were ever successful in the first place, would only pit him and Louise against the church. He may not have been in this world long, but he could easily tell that this would be akin to having literally the whole elemental nations after him, and actively so. Going missing-nin might get you allies with the other countries, who might bargain with you for your secrets and skills despite the fact that you were inherently untrustworthy. Getting the only religion in the known world to declare you a heretic and putting you on the short-list of 'people to capture and or kill on sight' would not ultimately be a good idea. He didn't doubt that he had the strength to defeat even the strongest of enemies in a confrontation, but he simply didn't have the resources or supplies to run away indefinitely, and with nowhere to run to either. He was penniless, and with no contacts. Against the wealth and might of the Valliere family, he was an ant in the grand scheme of things. Even if he managed to kill Karin, who appeared to be this world's equivalent of his own village's fourth Hokage in terms of prowess and combat potential, and then the rest of the family, it wouldn't matter in the end. The entire household was actually a sham, just cover so that when the royal family had a black sheep that they couldn't publically acknowledge, they could just say it was because they were an illegitimate child as cover for the fact that they were actually Void users who would bring the church on them if it were known.

It only occurred to him now that when Colbert talked about how it was "unprecedented" for a human, let alone a noble to be summoned as a familiar, Old Osmand just gave a knowing nod. As if he were merely humoring an ignorant child.

"Needless to say, we cannot afford for it to get out that Louise is a Void mage, nor can we have some random magic user who is neither a noble, nor a disgraced noble running about unchecked. So I will offer you a deal, and it is not negotiable, though it is generous." At this the Duke stood up with as royal an air as a person could have before speaking "I know not of what the station 'shinobi' means, but I have been told that it means you are not unfamiliar with intrigue or wetwork. I Laurent de la Valliere, by the power granted to those of the brother-line do hereby enlist you Sasuke Uchiha do offer enlistment to service the crown. Upon acceptance you shall be stripped of any and all prior rank and affiliation and pledge hereforth to be in service to the royal family of Tristain." Laurent paused to wait for Sasuke's response.

He didn't know what to think, he was still trying to figure out a way out, some play, some tactic, some strategy. He had nothing. He had been outmaneuvered from before he had even come here. He had been out-played since he arrived. He was certain that he would not be allowed to live if he rejected, and he already knew what would happen if he tried to run. The Vallieres would brand him a heretic, with more than enough proof, likely sacrificing their daughter to ensure it. He would be hunted for as long as he lived. His name itself would be tarnished, ruining any chance of him reviving his clan. He was trapped. There was nothing left but to make the only choice he could, and find a way to make the best of it later. Still, he could at least be defiant about it.

"Hn." It was not a word, but it was apparently affirmative enough for the man before him. With a flourish, and another surge of energy the Duke cast some spell that settled on top of Sasuke and finally he spoke again. "Let the works of the holy bond hold you to your word." With this the blonde man smiled jovially "And welcome to 'The Family'!"

* * *

AN: Still in a rut, and wholly unsatisfied with how this is coming out. Though at least the ending to this one was actually lots of fun, even if the beginning sucked majorly.

The first big reveal (and so far the only one planned for some time!), Louise's father's name is Laurent! Oh, and the Valliere's are actually essentially a super-secret clandestine order of Void-Mages and their relatives. The Duke having a name is MUCH more surprising in my book though (and yes I totally just made it up, the in-universe Duke doesn't actually have a name. And the only reason I even gave him one is because I am sick of writing The Duke. Though I did at least give him the name of the father of the IRL Louise de la Valliere... So there's that).

Not sure how well the pacing comes off here, hopefully I won't have to revise it, but I'll wait for feedback to see.

As for what just happened, Yes. Sasuke totally got played by a scheming manipulative mastermind, and he totally got roped into something he did not expect. Still, no fight between him and Karin just yet (we'll see on whether that ever ends up happening). Honestly Sasuke did better than one would expect, and only managed to even get through the first 'trap' because he used illusions to illegally obtain info, and also because he was able to completely learn to read a new language in a week...  
He is going to be salty about losing like that for a long time, though he will eventually feel less bad when he realizes that he was out-played far more deeply than he thought he was (Spoiler/Hint: The plan was not two parts but rather infinite parts. The Duke and Duchess are able to keep switching things up in a sort of meta-meta mindgame, and never give up which of them is the 'true' mastermind. Which is accurate since the 'true' answer is more of a 'Both of them, and neither of them' kind of thing for the true mastermind behind the Vallieres and the Royal Secrets).

I am actually not particualrly happy with that scene, I really feel it doesn't do justice to how I wanted Laurent to be. He is 'supposed' to come off as the master of the Xanatos gambit, though mostly by being Super-Prepared. Unfortunately I get the feeling I bungled this and just made everything confusing... Let me know which one it is, as I will likely be more than happy to rework this scene at some point later on if it sucks.


	5. Interlude: Being Sasuke is Suffering

Sasuke was certain that Laurent had at least a few screws loose. After concluding their _business_ the Duke decided that it was time for merriment and whimsy. He called up one of the butlers, who Sasuke later found out was an old friend of the Duke's and whose family had served the Valliere's for close to a hundred years. The Duke brought out what he called 'The finest burnt water in the of the lands'.

Being an avenger with a single goal and no time for pleasure, Sasuke was not particularly familiar with alcohol. Watching the other two men downing the drink from their glasses in one gulp Sasuke attempted to imitate. It burned all the way down, and tasted very bitter. The look in the older man's eyes made him feel like he was some small child whose innocence amused him. He was a Shinobi, a trained killer. His pride could not tolerate such a slight, so he knocked back another drink of the stuff, he found it was much better the second time than the first.

The entire time between drinks was essentially just the old men reminiscing about their youth, and the antics they would get into. Honestly Sasuke didn't care, but the silly things they would do reminded him somewhat of what the Troublemaker did as a child during the academy.

At some point Laurent decided that he had enough of Sasuke's sitting and listening, "Brooding is unsociable and unfit for those with ties to royalty" he'd said. So Sasuke began answering the Duke's occasional question, responding ultimately turned into discussing, and discussing into talking.

As the third drink was poured he had actually begun to talk about subjects like a person who actually had contact with other human beings before.

The fourth had him telling his horrible life's story with a heavy slur and large wobbly hand-motions.

By the fifth drink he found he had a hard time keeping track of the conversation he was leading, and was certain that there were several more people in the room than when he started.

He fell dead asleep, hitting his head on the desk, in the middle of his sixth drink.

* * *

"S -ke, -th- -u" Pain, the world was pain. Thinking about the pain was pain. Trying to scream out to relieve the pain was pain. He was but a pain-machine crafted by a pain-factory.

Everything that could, hurt. Even the things that couldn't, hurt.

And it wasn't the normal 'ouch' kind of hurt that he got when stabbed, or the hurt he got when burned, or when crushed, or when nearly-drowned, or even the kind of hurt like when he realized his family was dead. It was a new kind of hurt, like he was being crushed, from the inside, and that everything was merely another avenue through which he could pain.

It was like everything was too much, and he was too little, and the difference was destroying him.

And there was too much damned light. Everything was way too bright, the lights were bright, the reflections were bright, the inside of his eyelids were bright. Minutes must've gone by, minutes that felt like small eternities.

Small eternities of pain.

Activating his bloodline to break whatever spell was cast on him was a bad idea.

Before his head was throbbing with pain at a normal speed, now his head was on fire. He had the glorious opportunity to witness himself physically reacting to this torture in slow-motion. The disorienting nature of watching your body move more slowly than your mind was not helping.

Thunk. Sasuke tried to jump in retreat away from what sounded like the dullest crash he had ever heard.

Moving hurt. Not his body, but his head.

Closing his eyes he felt his hands down himself to find a weapon.

He failed.

There must've been a band playing somewhere nearby, because that was the only logical explanation for the repetitive drum-beat that was way too loud.

Though it was weird that it didn't seem to come from any particular direction…

"-r -k?" It was a voice, but not any he recognized, it was all glass and metal scraping each other, with explosions in-between the scraping glass.

His eyes hurt, his ears hurt. He was pretty sure he couldn't smell for some reason. He couldn't taste anything. His mouth felt uncomfortably dry.

Forcing some semblance of composure into himself he brought his hands up and channeled his chakra to attempt to dispel the illusion. Molding chakra hurt.

Something touched his left shoulder, he struck out with a closed-fist backhanded strike. His hand hurt, in fact most of his arm hurt now too. His back was cold, and whatever he was sitting against was hard.

His hurting hand felt like it was smattered with sand. It was also very warm. In fact his hand-warmth seemed to ebb and flow with the sound of the loud drums coming from nowhere.

"-ld -ll!" A terrible shriek, a higher pitch than anything he had ever heard. Maybe it was a banshee sucking out his soul? That would certainly explain the pain.

Think later, hurt now.

He was pretty sure there were whole hours where he wished to die, that his whole body cried out for mercy from this new sensation. He would remark to himself that such sentiments were unbecoming of the Avenger of the Uchiha. He got halfway through that exact sentiment before giving up, because thinking hurt too much.

Opening his eyes again he was yet again assaulted by the bright, and everything moved too slow. Focusing his pain-energy away from his pain-orbs with which he suffered the Bright, the world focused back into normal-speed, and the Bright was noticeably less so.

Focusing on something other than the pain he saw older-Louise.

Older-Louise looked at him funny, before walking away.

He wasn't sure, but she must have been part of the Akimichi clan or something. Her footsteps were like falling mountains. He found it amazing that the building wasn't shaking, and even more so that she didn't dent the floor.

Even the floor was bright.

Chancing a look around he found the source of the bright, apparently someone was shining the bright from outside the window.

Moving closer to the source of the bright he swept out his left hand to close the blinds, hoping that they might block out the bright.

They did, though not all the way. Still moderate bright was far less painful than Bright.

Somehow he had bits of rock stuck in his warm-hurting-hand.

Digging out the bits of rock hurt more than leaving it alone, so he left it alone.

Slumping with his back to the window he tilted his head down and tried to slow his breathing. Meditation always made pain easier to deal with.

Finally he got his into his rhythm and began to breathe in controlled breaths. Doing so let him push the pain away. It still hurt, but now he could think straight.

Well, he could. Right up until the mountains crashed again right in front of him. Older-Louise must be back.

This time when she touched him he didn't hurt his hand.

"-rink this" It was the loudest whisper he had ever heard. The fact that something so loud had even bothered trying to be quiet, and then managed to make such a loud whisper was so strange that he actually chuckled slightly. Chuckling was painful, it made his breathing get out of line, and made meditating the pain away more difficult. He was pretty sure he understood, however, and when something cold touched his lips he let her pour whatever was in it down his throat.

He sat there for hours just focusing on his breathing, willing the pain away in slow but steady amounts. It almost alarmed him that he could breathe in for a dozen minutes at a time, and then breathe out for just as long. Whatever was hurting him had apparently granted him super-human lung capacity.

Then it was gone.

All at once a dull calm settled over him. The room was in muted colors, greys and browns of granite, and the white of marble.

Chancing it he spoke to older-Louise "How long was I in here for? Who did this to me?" Normally he would feel anger, but now he just felt too exhausted to bother.

"Ha, hahahahaa" Sasuke knew that voice, knew that laugh. It was the Duke. "hmmph" The other not-quite a chuckle was not familiar though.

Sure enough Laurent walked in, guffawed and held his stomach. Next to him was his wife. Sasuke was sure he saw the blonde crying, apparently they must have just rescued him, and Laurent was hysterical from it. Though the smirk on the Duchess's face was strange.

Finally after his fit of giggles came down Laurent answered his questions. "I am pretty sure you did this to yourself, and we brought you into the guest room after falling asleep, so… six hours, tops."

Laurent began laughing again and older Louise left the room calling for a servant to bring bandages.

The Duchess stared at Sasuke, her entire being radiating but one thought "You are a great source of amusement, continue to be so as it pleases me greatly. I might even appoint you to a position of jester if you keep this up."

It was only then that Sasuke remembered the night before.

* * *

AN: Short-ish chapter, and totally filler I admit. I had a hard time even thinking of how I wanted to do what I wanted to do next. So instead I wrote this to get something out there. For those interested, this Sasuke had never drank before, let alone heavily. The stuff that Laurent was drinking was not your ordinary stuff either.

I wrote the first draft of this particular chapter while I myself was hung over. It was not a pleasant experience. Thinking while in pain is hard, I had to come back and edit this afterwards. I feel like I did justice to how awful a hangover can be for those who A. have never had a hangover before, and B. just don't drink much in general.

For those who think this is OOC, I will admit that on some level it might be, but I feel it is justified for the following reasons. I feel that Sasuke, and even Neji and the other 'stoics' are not people who lack emotion like 'normal' people, rather that they just manage to make it so that nobody can tell. Through this entire scene if you were looking in from the outside, you would merely see a young man with a blank expression walk around the room, blink repeatedly and then slouch against a wall (followed by him smashing his fist into that wall when Cattleya tries to touch him).  
From Sasuke's perspective it is close to hell.  
Also the entire wake-up scene takes place over a timeframe of about a minute or two, maybe three. Sasuke's subjective time made it feel much longer than that.

Hopefully I should have the next chapter out relatively quickly, and I am anticipating a fight scene, so look forward to that. Also I expect it to be much longer than usual, though we'll see.

With any luck I won't be writing THAT chapter while myself suffering a hangover...


	6. Ch 4: Heartbroken Badass vs Red Baron

Sasuke followed Karin out into the forests of the Valliere estate. After embarrassing the young man, Laurent decided it would be as good a time as any to get an understanding of just what Sasuke was capable of. While he might have wheedled out more than Sasuke originally intended to divulge, it was mostly meaningless due to how foreign these abilities are.

Laurent was no fighter, though, so he was not exactly the best person to test the martial prowess of anyone. Luckily his better half was better in many ways. He couldn't think of a single person who would be better able to test the young boy's mettle, and allow him to determine what needed to be done.

He brought along his daughters, and some servants with foodstuffs to observe the match. One did not observe without the comforts of luxury after all.

After about ten minutes of walking Karin and Sasuke had finally made it to a clearing. From its center there was about a hundred meters in any direction of flat gravel and rock covered ground. Outside this ring were trees on every side.

"This shall be where we will fight." Karin was blunt and to the point. As Karin pulled out a wooden wand, Sasuke was slightly befuddled that he would have to be the one to bring it up.

"Are there any rules I should know of?" Thinking it a good tactic, he took a page out of his ex-teammate's playbook "Being old and wrinkly must mean I need to give you at least some sort of handicap right? Maybe both my arms tied behind my back?"

Nobody but Sasuke and the Duke could tell, Karin was seething at that remark. With a short glance at her husband he began hurriedly chanting some spell. Karin brought her sword-wand up to her mouth and blew into its pommel, a loud shrill sound came out. Less than a minute later the sky went dark, Sasuke looked up to see some giant… Thing.

As soon as whatever-it-was landed in the clearing he could hear it cooing as Karin rubbed its horn. Karin muttered something to the beast and it immediately snarled at Sasuke, but did not otherwise make any threatening moves. Karin then said a short incantation and tapped her dress in many places, only for the dress to essentially rip apart to reveal light armor. With a flick of her wand she moved the pieces of her former-dress over to where the spectators were getting ready to watch. Finally she reached into the bridle that the beast wore and took hold of a long polished sword, and a well-maintained, but slightly rusted helmet, along with a sword belt.

In one motion Karin attached her sword belt to her torso and her helmet to her head. Digging slightly more she pulled out attachments that expanded her armor from little more than a tracksuit with light greaves and pauldrons sewn in to full-plate armor, complete with a chevalier's cape.

Sasuke could say with certainty that Karin went into combat wearing more gear than even the most over-prepared samurai. He was grinning at the concept.

When she finally looked ready again the Duke had just finished up whatever it was he was doing. WIth a flourish and a loud shout the area began to glow with energy, creating a barrier of magical energy to ensure that what happened in the clearing, stayed in the clearing. As a strategic move, this was horrible for Sasuke. He had lost the advantage of cover from the trees, and would no longer be able to use the forest terrain to push an advantage. Really his only options now were a head-on fight, and with that great beast here he would be limited to little else than pushing an offensive wherever he could. Retreat meant being flanked, and while he was completely confident in his ability to defeat Karin, he had no idea what that beast was capable of. Seeing as the tension was beginning to ease, and he wanted it high, Sasuke once again quipped.

"So, one hand behind my back or two?"

"I'll allow you to face me head on, but please take pity on this poor old woman."

Words aside both Sasuke and Karin's body postures clearly stated to each other one simple message "Try not to die, I haven't had my fun with you yet."

With their eyes having met, Sasuke took this as the start of the fight. He quickly sprinted to his right, in order to put Karin between himself and the beast. At the same time he used the seals on his wrists to pop out some shuriken. Not having the opportunity to recover the ones he used against Itachi, he had a limited supply. He needed to make each and every one count, and to keep track of where they landed in order to have a chance at recovering them for re-use.

Unleashing two stars with his left hand as a distraction he made hand seals to prepare to unleash his technique right as he reached his destination. Powerful or not, Karin did not have access to chakra, which meant her physical capabilities were severely limited compared to himself. He needed to make her fear a long-range confrontation, and have her move in to strike with her sword.

Just as he took his final step he noticed her point her sword at him. She was clearly getting ready to unleash some of her famed wind magic. Wind was weak to fire.

Sasuke let out a yell and fired off his attack "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu".

The ball of flames left his mouth just as his shoulder exploded in pain. The surprise forced him to stop mid-way into his exhalation of flames. While there was still a substantial amount of fire released, the power behind the grand fireball was not that it was hot but that it was persistent. The great beast shielded her from the fire with its massive wing, and without Sasuke to fuel the flames and sustain it they didn't even do more than lightly singe the thing's hair.

Sasuke quickly dove as he felt air pressure near his chest.

A spear of wind bit the front of his ankle as he landed. Karin had not moved, and not said a word since the beginning of the fight. She could cast without incanting. Sasuke would not be caught surprised again. Activating his Sharingan in the middle of his roll he noticed her sword-hand wave in the direction of where he would end up if he continued.

Aborting his roll, Sasuke pushed his hand directly at the ground and pushed. He managed to hop right past where Karin had aimed, and the grass where he would have landed was shredded.

Balancing his weight, he noticed that the strike to his ankle was no mere scrape. It was painful to stand on it, and he was confident that some of the ligaments were severed, given that he could not move his toes.

With the slight pause his evasion bought him he locked eyes with Karin's helmeted head in order to ensnare her with his Sharingan. His chakra went out but he could tell that it was somehow repelled as it go near her. For whatever reason she appeared immune to his illusions for the moment.

Taking the initiative Karin quietly chanted something that Sasuke couldn't make out. A moment later he was thankful he had activated his doujutsu. She approached him with speed beyond what he expected, and he had to settle for drawing out a kunai rather than his sword to defend himself against her attacks.

She took three stabs at him with her fencing-tipped blade that he dodged easily enough, and he blocked the horizontal slash that followed with little trouble. He imagined that for a fighter in this world she must be exceptionally skilled, but there are simply no physical techniques by someone of her level that he couldn't counter so long as he could move fast enough to abuse his enhanced sight.

Though he wasn't in any danger of being struck by her blade, her attacks were well enough planned that he was not able to get in any strikes of his own.

Deciding that defending on a bad foot was asking for a mistake to come his way he left himself open on his bad side, and spun around the attack he had 'let' her have on him. Putting all his weight on his good leg he pivoted quickly and managed to get enough distance to buy him some time for another attempt at ninjutsu. "Chidori Nagashi"

Karin halted her charge mid-stride waving her sword in an elaborate motion and chanting again while hopping away from him at a much slower speed than her approach.

Seeing this opportunity Sasuke charged in, moving his lightning chakra to concentrate around his hand rather than spread around his body.

Before he could charge in he was knocked to the ground, buried inches deep in the soil. A claw wrapped around his leg and pulled him up into the air. Sasuke slammed his electricity-charged fist into the beast's leg when he was only a story off the ground. The beast convulsed, letting go of him.

He stretched his back and flexed his abdominal muscles to reorient him mid-air.

He hit the ground face-down with the force of a cannon-shot.

The wind rushed around him like an enormous weight on his back, the sound was as if a storm had condensed right on top of him.

He was pressed into the ground for close to a minute before he realized that he would need a plan to turn the tide. Her magic was wind-based, which would cancel out his faster lightning techniques. Without needing to incant she could fling wind spells at him faster than he could use even his most basic fire techniques. Just like he originally thought, if he didn't keep that winged beast in his sights it would be able to swoop in at the worst times to either interrupt his offense, or protect Karin. That armor would protect her from the worst of any thrown weapons he could try, and his illusions did not appear to be working.

He never thought he would have to resort to using one of his tactics specifically designed to kill Itachi so soon after doing so, but if he wanted to do more than eat dirt here he didn't have much choice.

Forcing chakra to his legs he glued himself to the ground for leverage and lifted himself into a kneeling position. Forcing his way through the galeforce winds directing him downward, sapping his chakra reserves just to gain inches of movement, he managed to bring his arms together in order to form his own environment changing technique.

"Katon: Gouryuuka" Pointing his head towards the giant beast with great effort he fired his technique skyward. The giant dragon of fire tore through one of the great beast's wing's. The flame was more hot than it was forceful, though, so instead of knocking the beast down and using its weight and height against it, the attack merely forced it into a glide towards the ground.

The currents above him died out for a bit, giving Sasuke some room to retreat.

"d'Artagnan!" Karin screamed as she ran towards her familiar was landing. She ripped the helmet from her head in order to better see to the falling beast.

Upon seeing the hole in his wing she turned to face Sasuke with murder in her eyes, any semblance of cool aloofness completely replaced by inimitable rage. "You…" She quivered as she talked, pointing her blade following the boy's retreating form.

"I" the grass around her stirred with a breeze "Will" a soft whine sounded out. "Tear" She stomped her foot on the ground, as she said this, kicking up debris allowing the dozens of gusts to be visible to the naked eye from the particles of dirt. "You" Sasuke could feel something, it wasn't killing intent, but it felt similar. "APART!" Raising her sword into the air she charged forward, bringing her hand down just as she got within striking range of the young boy.

Sasuke was lifted right off his feet. He was a ragdoll within the storm around him battered by winds in different directions. He quickly was slammed into the invisible array keeping their fight somewhat contained. The tempest pulsed and intensified as she stepped towards him slowly. Tossed across the clearing by the violent winds in her initial assault she had to cover the whole hundred-plus meters while keeping up her spell.

She moved slowly, a step every few seconds. The power of the spell ebbed and flowed with her approach, as if the maelstrom had a heartbeat that was timed with her steps. The winds were blunt things, like clubs of air-pressure.

Thump. Beat. Step.

A blow to his leg.

Thump. Beat. Step.

A strike to his jaw.

Thump. Beat. Step

His wrist twisted from the impact.

Thump. Beat. Step.

His left shoulder cried out in pain.

Thump. Beat. Step. Thump. Beat. Step. Thump. Beat. Step.

...

It took her nearly two minutes to cross half the way to him, every step of the way the winds intensified and struck him again. It had only been five minutes and he was already one giant bruise. His left leg was broken, the cut in his other leg had increased due to the jostling and he could no longer move anything in that foot.

Five minutes… His fight with Itachi barely lasted that long...

Only five minutes of this, and he was nearly ready to forfeit.

Her power didn't wane, she didn't look tired. There wasn't even sweat on her face.

With the winds blowing her pink locks about in every direction he thought she looked like what Sakura might have grown into if she ever fully took after the Fifth Hokage in attitude and skill. A frightful demon of a woman with an awful temper.

It was when she dislocated his shoulder that he decided he wasn't winning this fight against her.

He moved his good hand, good being a relative term, over to his familiar runes so that he could signal to the Duke that he was forfeiting when he felt little bullets of cold hit him.

Rain. It was raining.

"Ha." Karin began to laugh as she approached. It was a sickly crazed sound. "The skies cry for your injury d'Artagnan, even the heavens feel your pain." Her face contorted from an almost insane grin to a cold anger.

Sasuke felt the pressure pushing into his neck and head lessen. He began pouring all his chakra into his good arm in order to move it. If it was raining he needn't call the match just yet. He had one play left.

"Surrender, and I might just consider not ripping you apart for your slights against your betters." Her voice was once again cool as ice. She was once again the Duchess of the Valliere rather than the rage clouded Heavy Wind. He smirked as she walked slowly approaching him. "What do you say?"

With all the strength left in his body he thrust his arm skyward.

His response was a whisper, drowned out by the winds, yet Karin heard it clear as if he had shouted it into her ears.

"Kirin."

The thunderclap was enormous. Sasuke watched it happen in slow-motion. The lightning which he had formed in the sky into a giant animal came down, galloping on the air as if it were solid ground under its hooves. Karin waved her arm and he watched the torrent of wind that she pulled to defend herself. It was sad he knew, that he managed such a powerful last effort, and that it would be dashed because of something so silly as elemental weakness.

Still he would never tire of watching this technique. It stampeded down, closer to the wall of winds that would annihilate it. Gallop, trot, gallop, trot. He smiled as it walked right into the wall of wind. And then right through the wall of wind. His smile turned slightly as it passed the wall of wind and continued on. Continued on to strike the lightning rod of a woman in the field.

Sasuke closed his eyes as his Sharingan faded from chakra exhaustion. His last thought as he fell to the ground in a crumpled heap of pulped flesh and bruises, as the pressure from the wind magic dissipated instantly and dropped him like a rock, was "huh."

* * *

Warning possible spoilery stuff and me complaining ahead.

AN: Ughh... so... It occurred to me halfway through my seventh draft of this that having the first fight-scene I have ever written be one that is supposed to be relatively epic and back and forth (rather than totally one sided beat-down, which seems like it should be easier to write) was a poor decision. I went through nine scrapped drafts of this before I decided on this version... I probably should get a beta to bounce ideas off of, but that seems like too much work, and I work on such a weird schedule that I wouldn't wan't to put anyone through that.

Some background stuffs. I decided via authorial fiat that the total actual amount of time that sasuke is fighting itachi is 4 minutes and 49 seconds. The reason it took so long in the anime was that 20+ minutes of it all took place in about seven seconds (the layered genjutsu battle), and most of the rest of it was delayed and stretched out for dramatic effect? Yeah, that sound plausible enough for why it was only 'actually' five-ish minutes (totally making crap up).  
Let me know if I totally fucked this chapter up, because I am still not sure if I did my idea justice (though I suppose not knowing what it looked like in my head, might make it look better for you guys... I can only hope).  
There will [probably] be some expository infodumps in some chapters sometime soon to explain certain aspects of what went on here (there is more going on than meets the eye in why things ended up the way they did, that last part in particular).

Also to anyone who wanted such a fight to go one way or the other, sorry that I made everyone sad no matter whose side they are on. It's a tie via double Knock Out.

Also I need to give credit to zero0hero's Halkegenia Online, which was the only place I could get a name for the manticore from (I seem to recall him having a name in GBlessing's hill of swords, but I couldn't find it, and d'Artagnan is badass enough for my purposes). I am sending out a PM to him to make sure he is ok with my stealing that name for my purposes, if he says no then I will be editing this and coming up with something suitable to replace it with. Either way I highly recommend his aforementioned fic to anyone who likes Sword Art Online and Familiar of Zero (seriously, I am obsessed with his fic atm. I have probably read through most of its chapters twice. His portrayal of Mortimer interacting with the generals is probably one of my favorite scenes in all of fanfiction).

For people interested, I had to do a LOT of thinking about the interactions between magic and chakra, and also relative powerlevels of various entities that can/will/might interact in this story...

As far as this story goes Karin should actually be super-heavily favored against Sasuke here, and the only reason he didn't get his ass handed to him was that she saw this as an honorable duel, because she is an honorable warrior. Sasuke is a shinobi, and his first real 'spar' he was told "come at me with the intent to kill", it is just how shinobi fight (which essentially meant that Karin was fighting differently than she would in "mortal combat").

If she had gone all out from the beginning she could have disabled him long before he could have done much by simply holding him in place (crushed into the ground) long enough to have d'artagnan move in and snap him in half with his massive manticore jowls.

On the other hand in future fights Sasuke should be wholly favored because he learned something really cool about how the elements, chakra, and magic interact in this story, and also knows now that either getting her helmet off her, or never letting her put it on, will make his life TONS easier.

This is it for now, let me know if I did justice to the characters, if not please tell me specifically what was wrong/ooc/weird so that I can either go back and fix it, or more likely just keep it in mind for the future (I really don't feel like writing this AGAIN, so i'll stick to handwavy excuses and ret-conning specific parts later unless it is really blatant or egregious).


	7. Interlude: Tsun, Tsun, Tsun Dere?

Louise was conflicted. On the one hand it was incredible. A familiar forced a mage _and _that mage's familiar, who happened to be a manticore of all things, to a draw in open combat. Not just any mage either. Karin Desiree de la Valliere, ex-captain of the crown's own manticore knights, herself probably the strongest mage in a hundred or two years. Her prowess had earned her a moniker that was used as a scary story to tell little children to do things they didn't want to, the Heavy Wind.

And it wasn't just any old familiar that managed such an absurdity, it was _her _familiar. Louise le Blanc de la Valliere, the most talentless mage in the family's history, the zero.

Somehow her first and only successful spell brought into this world someone so powerful that he could subvert foundational truths about the nature and order of things (like her mother's invincibility).

If one's talent as a mage was judged solely on the strength and power of one's familiar Louise was probably without question the most talented mage since Brimir himself!

On the other hand… Sasuke might be the most stupid, bull-headed, reckless, irrational, unthinking, and … stupid creature to ever exist human or not (and after that fight Louise was beginning to edge further on the side of 'not').

For Founder's sake, he had the foresight to learn about his opponent, and study her history. He even had an opportunity (though brief and quiet) to get some semblance of just how she was in person. In retrospect it was probably safe to assume that the inquiries about wind magic in particular back at the academy, and about Louise's personal history with her mother were both probably to seek the upperhand in a fight, which in hindsight was probably a good idea given his personality.

Yet even after having the closest thing to what could be called a full grasp of just who the Heavy Wind was as was possible for one who had not met her, he not only intentionally provoked her once they were ready to fight, but seemed to actually enjoy that mutual slugfest.

Even now, lying in _her _bed (stupid noble obligation to personally see to her 'servant' if he could truly be called such), swathed in bandages from head to toe, and clearly unconscious, it was impossible not to see the stupid smug smirk that his face was set in.

It must be just her luck that she would manage to summon a person of all things. Considering that alone, it probably shouldn't have been that far of a leap to think that he would be stupid, and insane, and arrogant, and stupid, and utterly disrespectful, and boring, and stupid, and completely without any sense of chivalry, and lacking in noble pride (she could see right through his noble 'act' easily enough), and… and… and yet he law there defenseless against the world. and it was late. Plus, she was tired. and it was probably best she kept him company. and as she lay down next to him she noticed that his breathing was at an odd rhythm, and that it was actually rather adorable.

She decided that snuggling in just a bit closer would probably help him get better quicker, because then her healthiness could more easily rub off on him, or something. 'Injury recovery totally works like that' she thought groggily as she lay her head down. Her eyes grew heavy and her last thought before drifting off was "stupid…"

* * *

AN: Realized that the next actual chapter is taking longer than I originally thought, and this snip could easily be put out on its own (it was originally the first part of the upcoming chapter) in the meantime.

For those curious, writing subtext and getting in all the necessary scenes to make future things not appear to be out-of-the-blue is aggravating and difficult... It is worse when you Fail At Subtlety Forever, like yours truly.  
Warning semi-spoilers ahead:  
I suppose now is as good a time as ever to apologize in advance for the slowness that it to follow. After debating with myself and a handful of rewrites I decided that in-universe metaphysical consistency is going to take precedence over advancing the plot. Which means that for various reasons Sasuke will be convalescing for at least the next two chapters (which should hopefully cover about a week or two in-universe, if not longer). Much of which will be mostly internal dialogue and self-reflection on Sasuke's part (I peg him as the type to get all existential and reflective after big fights), though if everything goes well there should be some fun character interactions, and a change of scenery.


	8. Ch 5: Sasuke cops a feel

The first thing Sasuke noticed through the mental fog was that he was actually comfortable. It was warm. Not uncomfortable, just warm. And soft. He could feel the feather-bed beneath him had a casing of silk and from its softness against his back was certainly stuffed with some form of down feathers. He was not able to feel the thicker mattress beneath it, which indicated that the feather-bed itself was of high quality, and also very thick.

Trying to lift himself he felt the pain echo throughout his body. It looked like without the cursed seal and the influence of Orochimaru's DNA he did not recover quite as quickly as he remembered. Considering the damage his muscles and soft tissues took during his fight with Karin he supposed he should be glad that it wasn't painful except for when he moved.

Focusing on circulating his chakra, he willed it to move throughout his body. He may never have had the knack for medical ninjutsu that Kabuto did, but he knew his own body well enough to be able to manage diagnostic techniques with chakra alone.

His energy was almost back up to a quarter of the way back to full, which considering that he was certain he must have been suffering from chakra depletion after that fight meant that he had been asleep for roughly fourteen hours.

Focusing on visualizing his stomach, he worked on gathering his energy into a bundle right above his navel. Eventually he felt it coalesce into the rough shape of a disk that spanned his abdomen. Making sure to keep his breathing level he moved the bundle up towards his heart. Giving himself a minute to count out his heartbeats while keeping track of the rate at which his lungs expanded and contracted indicated that he had practically no damage internally. The lack of pain from breathing told him that he luckily didn't break any of his ribs. Taking in a deep breath he felt no pain. His ribs must not have been bruised either.

He spent a while just lying there going over his internal anatomy with his life energy. After a short while he decided that there was not noticeable internal damage or dislocation anywhere in his torso.

Letting his chakra fade he finally opened his eyes. Checking his extremities would require use of his hands, which would mean sitting up.

Starting with his left arm he bent it at the elbow to put himself in a position to push himself upright.

After a painful jerk, he did so as well with his left.

His arm didn't move. The pain from moving his other arm cleared up his head from its morning grog significantly, it was because of this that he immediately realized why he both did not feel pain, and did not move his right arm as he'd intended. It was dead-numb. Concentrating on the feeling, he began to make smaller movements starting with his shoulder. Pins and needles assaulted him, and as they cleared he suffered from just a raw soreness and stinging.

"mmphlngl." a tangle of hair moved and settled next to his neck. Turning his head in the direction of the sound, he stopped turning his head when his cheek pressed into someone's skin. Through his peripheral vision he could easily make out the form of a sleeping Louise. A sleeping Louise that apparently had taken claim of his arm while he was asleep, and who was undoubtedly the cause of the numbness in that arm.

Deciding that getting upset at what was really a minor annoyance at worst was pointless, Sasuke tilted his head to re-examine what little of the room he actually could see from where he was. He knew that recovering was best done in comfort, with as little disturbance as possible (at least when there weren't medical ninjas who could make you right as rain in a matter of moments), which meant that waking Louise to get her to move was probably just not worth it.

Even if she did stop trying to act as if he were in a subservient position to her, it didn't make her any less irritable and easy to anger. The rantings of a little girl were surely not something he wished to subject himself to intentionally. The irony of the fact that he considered her a 'little girl' when she was actually a little more than a week younger than him, assuming months worked similarly between the elemental nations and here, did not escape him.

Looking around the room, he quickly noticed the canopy over the bed, as well the night stand with the Book of Brimir atop it. While elegant, the room he had been put in the first night was rather spartan, very little in the way of decoration and personalization. The more he glanced around, the more he became certain that this was no mere guest room, in retrospect a bed that was at least three or four times softer than the one he slept on the first night should have been an obvious clue that he was not in the same room. Though in his defense, it was hard to remember given that he only got to notice what the bed felt like for about a second or two before his head exploded in pain.

The girl who was for all intents and purposes cuddling to his side, in a manner that he regretfully reminded himself was not unlike how he had to the murderer that was once his older brother.

With time for thoughts to himself Sasuke decided that 'drinking whatever the hell it is that Laurent was serving' officially made his mental list of 'shit I am never going to do again if I can help it'. Number four in fact, right above 'listening in on conversations between Orochimaru and Kabuto that in any way, shape, or form, involves the words 'sex', 'copulation', or ; 'coitus'.' (now relegated to number five), and below 'Watching my family be murdered', 'Not being strong enough to avenge the murders', and 'Gambling in any way against Naruto Uzumaki' (one, two, and three respectively).

Deciding more rest couldn't hurt, he closed his eyes and simply let his thoughts wander for some time. For Sasuke, wandering thoughts inevitably lead to remembering what one might call the defining moments in his life. For someone with photographic memory forcing itself on not just their vision, but directly on to one's muscle memory, and chakra system, it was probably more apt to call it re-living rather than re-membering.

"_Have you awakened yet, eh? Obviously you haven't! Now I'll really break you apart, immobilize you, and take you with me! Sasuke!"_

Naruto. He might just be Sasuke's first friend, he was definitely the closest he ever got to a 'best' friend. Even while fighting Itachi, Sasuke wondered on whether or not he would eventually have to kill Naruto just to obtain the Mangekyou.

Though he would never tell anyone, the reason he never did so was not as he stated before Itachi, that he didn't need such things. When being true to himself, with no lies in his heart of hearts, he was absolutely certain why it was.

With a conviction even stronger than that with which he would tell himself that Itachi would pay, Sasuke asked himself the question on more than one occasion "Unlocking the Mangekyou requires killing the person closest to you. Naruto obviously felt a strong enough connection to me that it would qualify if it were him with the Sharingan. But as close as they actually ended up on some levels; as much as Naruto had actually managed to strip away the walls of protection that Sasuke had built for himself, which were to protect whoever would try and get close to him as much as they were to protect himself from being hurt again, those walls were still there.

Sure there were holes where the blonde's insistence and force of personality had drilled their way through. There was certainly chipping along its entire surface. Probably some actual rot set in the foundation. A big gaping section of rubble where his fortifications against fun and enjoyment were erected.

But for all the havoc Naruto somehow managed on his emotional defenses, they were never truly breached. Never finally. Never conclusively. Never in such a way that he could be sure how he felt about his erstwhile teammate.

He'd never been able to ask himself "would killing Naruto grant me the Mangekyou?" with a definite yes. It was up for grabs. Had he stayed in Konoha, Sasuke was certain that eventually his walls would have crumbled before the ever-enduring onslaught that was Naruto. But as things were he didn't know.

_It's not that I didn't cut those bonds. I didn't want to give him the pleasure of seeing me obtain power by following in his footsteps. I just spared your life on a whim...nothing more._

For a dolt, Naruto was incredibly perceptive. At less than a glance the blonde had managed to tell the truth from the lie in Sasuke's proclamation. It would have saved them both time and effort in posturing had he just honestly replied with what he later realized was what he truly felt.

"I am actually not sure that our bond was strong enough to do what I would need by severing it. The idea of cutting off something so close to me, and possibly doing it for nothing… It isn't worth the risk. If I knew for certain it would give me the tools to beat Itachi I would sever this bond in an instant… But knowing that it might all be for naught… I don't think I could live with myself if that happened."

Though Naruto's uncanny ability to discern such a true feeling from his actual statement really was a testament to his strength, of the conviction to follow through with one's goal no matter what.

It was actually more painful than Sasuke cared to admit to realize what his being in this world will end up meaning for the blonde.

Though if anyone could figure out a way to bring him back to konoha from here… Naruto was probably it. Fox or no, the way he managed to do the impossible could only be logically attributed to some kind of powerful bloodline ability.

A bloodline ability like the Sharingan…

Like the Mangekyou…

Like Itachi…

Itachi…

It always comes back to Itachi.

It always has.

Even before the Massacre it always came back to Itachi.

While Father's praise and adoration was a kind of obvious thing to want, it was always secondary to Itachi. Back then, if he had to choose between never being able to get his father's approval, and never getting to play with Itachi again he would have picked the latter in a heartbeat. There wouldn't even need to be thought involved. It was automatic.

Sasuke hated himself for that. For how he could have been so naive, so mistaken. So utterly blinded by affection and love. Even now, looking back with the power of hindsight he could not see it coming. His love for his older brother during his formative years was so complete that even knowing what would happen later, Sasuke could not piece together any clues from his earlier experiences with him.

Just a few weeks ago he would have denied it with more fervor than he could possibly imagine, but now, with Him dead…

The Itachi Uchiha from Sasuke's memories was in fact, and without question, the perfect older brother. Kind to a fault, but in an understated and not overbearing manner. Patient on a level that would put professional shogi- players to shame. Willing to put up with his constant begging and pleading, and actually apologizing for not being able to meet the demands of a child. Even honestly meaning those apologies wholeheartedly.

Looking back, it was still utterly incomprehensible how Itachi Uchiha, paragon of elder brothers everywhere could also be Itachi Uchiha, mass murderer of his own kin.

_"If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live in an unsightly way... Run, and cling to life, and then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."_

The fact that the man Sasuke remembered from his childhood could have ever uttered those words, and shown him the images that he saw…

It made it understandable that he had nothing left when the clan was finally avenged.

Single-minded goals are like that, you devote your everything to them. Everything, that way if you were to fail you could pass knowing you did everything in your power to get there, and that it just wasn't enough. It is utterly inconceivable that a person would give anything less than their entire being towards a goal like that.

In all honesty, as much as he wanted to kill Itachi, Sasuke was scared. Scared that he would succeed. Scared he would have to face the problem he now does. "what now?"

What does one do when they have finished their life's great work at sixteen years old? What does one do when the meaning behind his existence has been erased, by their own hand no less?

At the moment of suffering the Tsukuyomi for the first time all of his childish hopes and dreams were immediately destroyed. Falling in love, finding friends, impressing Father, playing with his favorite cousins, making friends, becoming a hero, saving princesses, getting to stay up late, becoming an adult in his own right and doing all those 'adult things'. At one point he even wanted to be Hokage, he had dreamed about it for months as a child 'Sasuke Uchiha, first Hokage from the great Uchiha clan. Stronger than all the others, the greatest ninja to ever lead the village'.

Though nobody ever knew it, the Fourth Hokage was actually his idol at one point. Charming, powerful, talented, capable of feats never before matched by another person. A man whose reputation alone was enough to avert wars, and who single-handedly killed the single most powerful existence in the world, even at the cost of his own life. A man with such conviction to be able to lay down his life for his village. Likely the only man Father both respected and admired. Sasuke wanted to become a man like that. A man that Father could never be anything but proud of.

In a way, Father's death signalled the death of his own childhood. There was no impressing a dead man. There was nothing a dead man could give you. Despite the horror of watching Mother, whom he loved more than anyone in the world, be brutally murdered it was actually the death of Father that brought him to the spiral that was his need for revenge.

Father was in a way his goal. If he could only get Father's approval then he would have no regrets left in life. Father's death meant in a very real way that Sasuke could never be fulfilled, and in what could be seen as a childish attempt to ignore that fact his psyche redirected his all from the goal of his father to that of his brother. It just changed what the desired relationship would be to one of executioner and criminal. It was really this sublimation of his deepest desire that turned him from a boy into a man, and from a 'person' to an Avenger.

It was starting then that avenging the clan's death meant everything to him. To replace his childish and unrealistic goals he constructed ones that he thought should only be 'expected' of the last of his clan.

'Repair and clean the clan buildings'. . . 'Create a monument in remembrance of the fallen'. . . 'Restore the prominence of the Uchiha in clan politics'. . . 'Re-establish the Uchiha police force'. . . 'Keep the district as the sole property of the Uchiha clan'. . . 'Ensure that the clan would have sufficient funds for future generations'. . . 'Revive the clan'. . . 'Ensure that even if he died that he left an heir'. . .

With creeping pace, sometimes years between their abandonment all ambitions, all goals, all desires, they all were subsumed by revenge. All merely things that he 'must avenge the clan' in order to ever hope to pursue. His own personal ambitions were swallowed up into the hole that was "Revenge", and then the ones that he had imposed on himself as a 'duty' met the same fate. In less than two years from the massacre, in just two years living in the ghost town that was the Uchiha District he had discarded more goals, more desires, more ambition than he had ever thought he could have.

Despite his self control he couldn't help but whisper his thoughts aloud, if only slightly "Sasuke Uchiha, the Avenger. He gave up more goals by sixteen than other men had gathered by thirty."

"So it should be no surprise that in his first week in the world he also discarded more common sense than the whole world was thought to contain. Truly a man to be revered" Louise added with sarcasm and fake reverence.

Sasuke laughed. Just a chuckle at first, it soon became a hard full chest laugh. His entire body was at the mercy of his reaction. He laughed until he cried. He cried until he again laughed. The whole time he had less control over his body than he could ever remember, his mind what an addled mess simply existing from sensation to sensation, unthinking.

Eventually his brain's cocktail of pleasure-chemicals faded away, and what was an almost blissful experience of unthinking light-headedness left him feeling the full strain of his bruised self convulsed with all the force that a trained shinobi's muscles could apply by themselves. Groaning at the persistent stinging of his still-injured body he tried to gather himself, his mind still foggy from the blinding white that encompassed his thoughts just a moment before.

The feel of gravity pulled his hair down towards his face rather than his back. At some point during his laughing fit he must have rolled over. Gritting through the pain he knew he would feel Sasuke pushed his arm forward to get the leverage to lift himself up. As his palm touched down, but before he could put his weight on it he noticed that what he felt was nothing like the featherbed that he had identified before drifting off in his thoughts.

"W-what do you think you're d-DOING!?" Louise's scream was unusually loud. He could actually smell her breath as it happened. Opening his eyes he saw a pale forehead and light red-brown eyes that he knew quite well from the last week.

Looking at his arm he realized that it was placed atop Louise's wrist, and that he was essentially half-sprawled on top of her.

Given that his own clothing was very open and loose it was little surprise that his robe had actually slid right off of one shoulder displaying his chest on that side. Louise, having been dressed in her own nightwear had little covering her to begin with, and apparently his movement had disrupted her attire as well.

Sasuke groaned through the pan and contorted himself into a roll onto the floor. Due to the distance to the bed's edge he could only land on one foot.

After putting his weight down he collapsed in pain, his center of gravity rapidly shifting and ultimately rolling over himself. His roll was fortunately stopped while he was in a position that had his back approximately against the wall. It unfortunately caused him to collide hard with a bookshelf. Hearing the hardwood vibrate he grabbed out with his hand to try and steady it.

He was successful, if only just.

While before the top of his robe before was somewhat sliding off, during his escapade to the ground it was mostly abandoned. The belt that fastened his whole outfit together had loosened and the white top lay behind him, leaving his upper body entirely unadorned.

"Y-You!" Louise pointed at Sasuke accusingly, but noticing his state of dress simply muttered incoherently for a second or two until she finally noticed him blink, she was pretty sure that was the closest he came to wincing, and move his hand to brush over some of the bruises on his flesh. Calming down at his subtle show of pain she straightened up her own clothing. His reaction at what happened was either some form of paranoia, or was actual surprise. While absolutely crazy, she didn't take him as the type to be paranoid for no good reason.

Whatever impropriety just took place was not intentional, and she _was_ his master (even if he would not allow her to use that title). Forgiveness was obviously the proper course of action… Even if she didn't like it.

"Ahem" Clearing her throat to draw his attention. When he was clearly looking at her she spoke, hand on her hips in what she thought was a suitably stern demeanor "What do you think you were DOING!?" Ok, so maybe her forced calm and forgiveness was mostly forced and not much calm… Was it wrong that she couldn't simply let what happened just now go so quickly? He practically assaulted her just now! If she didn't know better she might think he had lecherous intentions…

But she did know better. Given that in the week they had been sleeping in the same room together, and despite the fact that she always went to bed long before he did he never attempted anything it was fairly safe to say that if he was the type of man to try something along those lines it would have happened by now. It hadn't. Thus this obviously was not some attempt at lechery.

He simply stared at her for some. It appeared that he was simply going to stare at her blankly and ignore her. Not exactly something he hadn't done bef-

"I think..." His brow moved just the slightest bit, as if he was trying to think harder than usual and his brow tried to frown in contemplation. "I think that I may have found your addendum to my thoughts may have been more clever than I had anticipated." He thought for a second more before adding "It was… Funny." Adjusting his sitting posture more and bringing a hand to rest knuckles under his chin, something Louise had discovered some time ago meant he was thinking. "I" he paused "I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time… I don't…" He chuckled derisively at himself "I don't think I have honestly laughed, not chuckle or smirk or preen, but actually laugh…" His gaze went far off as if he were seeing another place and time "Since Itachi killed the clan…"

* * *

Finally deciding that after two minutes of silence he had nothing else to say Louise finally asked him the question she had at the tip of her lips that whole time. "Who is Itachi?"

Sasuke just stared at Louise like she'd grown a second head before mumbling something to himself.

It was a stupid mistake on his part. He was trying to keep things under control, not let anyone get a bead on exactly what happened in his past, keep things vague enough to use as a weapon. He should have had better control, he should have been able to keep his thoughts inside his head, he would never be able to beat Itachi if he couldn't…

Sasuke practically bolted upright. That was it. That was the reason. He relaxed because he could, it had finally sunk in. He had killed Itachi, Itachi was dead. The shackles he had kept around himself internally were reinforced with the knowledge that Itachi was still out there, that justice hadn't been done. Now that was no longer the case, without the threat of allowing Itachi to go free hanging over him it was as if something within him had shifted, as if everything wasn't just a ploy to getting to Itachi, as if he didn't need all those walls around his heart.

He didn't, and just like that his acknowledgement of it in his thoughts was enough to crumble them to dust. His life was ruled by Itachi, and now it wasn't. He was no longer the Avenger, he no longer needed to be. He was just Sasuke now, and even if he hadn't realized it consciously he did somewhere deep inside. It was time to move on. That wasn't a slip in his control, in his built up defenses. That was his inner self, his subconscious giving him a sign that he needed to move on.

Like any good shinobi he was educated in human psychology, and he knew that moving on from crises and trauma almost always meant opening up.

Sasuke was never the religious type, few shinobi were, as it was just asking for bad karma, but this was what those who were probably referred to as a sign. An indicator as to what needed to happen.

Sasuke didn't believe in faith, that it was futile and silly and a weakness. Yet now, right now, he felt compelled to take it as a sign of faith, that everything would somehow work out.

A man stood at the precipice of a cliff standing over a great canyon, with the fall completely obscured by mist too deep to see through. There was no way to see where the bottom was, or even if a bottom existed.

He jumped. In doing so a battle-hardened man was turned back into a boy.

"Louise, let me tell you a story. A story of glory, of pain, of betrayal. Of the greatest and most vile men to ever live. Of heroes and kinslayer. Let me tell you the story of the once-great Uchiha Clan."

It was a long story, at some point near the beginning Cattleya joined Louise on her bed. Eventually Eleanor was also enthralled in the tale. Of the warring clans, of the shinobi who would do battle for the daimyo. Of the great feud between the two greatest families Senju and Uchiha. Of Hashirama and Tobirama, or Madara and Izuna. Of the great techniques Mokuton and Sharingan.

Of the formation of the first hidden village. Of the fight over the position of first fire shadow. Of the wars, and the story of the Uchiha's rise to prominence in the village.

Of the power and might of the Sharingan.

Of Itachi.

For that was what it had always been whether Sasuke had known it. His life was but a tale of causes and effect.

Of the causes for Itachi, and the effects of Itachi.

Effects like Sasuke.

Uchiha Sasuke.

* * *

AN: Hey look an author's note, that place where the author apologizes for things that he thinks he did wrong and talks about his story...

This chapter was not at all what I was expecting it to be. I just started writing it and then the words just kind of took on a life of their own, which was actually really cool. If only this was the first version of what this chapter was supposed to be, and not the eleventy billionth (kudos to anyone who gets that reference).

I actually have few complaints about this chapter for once. I feel that Sasuke came across in pretty much exactly the way I wanted, and I got to touch base on all the things I wanted to explore here and even resolve some of the things I had been thinking of putting off for much much longer in the story.

Some terminology notes for those who aren't familiar with it (I wasn't and had to do a fair amount of research for parts of this chapter). A feather-bed or featherbed (also known as a feather tick) is basically a gigantic mini-mattress that goes on top of a mattress. In the time period this takes place in most mattresses were stuffed with straw or something similar and covered in linen, these were quite stiff. A featherbed was usually placed on top of the mattress proper and was stuffed with down feathers (some super-soft bird feathers). Louise, being the high-class lady that she is likes a softer than normal bed, so she has an extra-thick featherbed, and instead of being encased in linen everything of hers is made of silk (which would be much more expensive, and MUCH harder to wash and clean). At the period in which Halkegenia presumably exists, woven flax (linen) is almost certainly the predominant type of cloth, and things such as cotton are pretty much unheard of if they exist at all.

I think I will call this chapter the end of 'act 1', with act 1 essentially being just one story arc, the introduction arc, introducing the the characters to the world and each other, and the audience (kind of) to what exactly is going on in this story. [Hopefully] from here I can start on the next act which I have tentatively called [warning spoilers] 'The War' [/spoilers] which should be the meat of the story, and will likely be in the realm of 20-40k words if my estimates hold up (it could either go long or short, I think the actual meat and potatoes of it should take around 20k words, but it could easily take much longer to get things in place and also do some character development and whatnot), for those interested I am thinking this story should essentially end up as 3ish acts long (with the 3rd being tentatively titled [spoilers] 'The Aftermath' [spoilers]).

My current estimate puts the story so far at about 18k words (which by the standard of 250 words is 1 page that I learned in my creative writing classes forever ago and a day puts it at about 60-some pages, which if you assume we are talking about a normal-sized paperback is probably about right for 12 point font), I estimate the whole thing hopefully finishing up at around 70-80k words.

Some of the things I do in this chapter in terms of formatting are a bit on the strange side from my experience, the reason is for pacing. I find that the hard line breaks and short sentences with elipses evoke the pace that I was trying to set. Though I could be wrong and it is actually horrible to look at and read. If it is the latter let me know, and if you can think of it tell me how you think I should be doing it instead.

Stuff for those who like to know random thoughts about the story from the author (and mostly a way for me to put some things down in a kind of official format so that I have to hold myself accountable to these ideas later on when writing other material), Sasuke's emotional 'breakdown' (probably not the best word to describe it) here is completely intentional from an in-universe perspective. It is actually due in part to the familiar runes, which link him with Louise on a spiritual/psychic level (that is how I personally interpret the bond anyway) and also because of a kind of mishap with some water magic while he was asleep. Because [classified], the water magic that was used to try and heal him after his brawl with Karin caused some weird side effects, one of which is that his body was coaxed into a state of 'healing'. Because magic totally works based on ontology (at least I say it does) this means it includes healing of a spiritual and emotional nature, which induced him to be more susceptible to thinking about and dealing with things that normally would have been pretty locked up deep down there in that cave of suppressed emotions that is Sasuke's inner psyche. Also the runes are doing things and stuff in general (yes that is vague) which also has an impact as well.

The next chapter will probably not take too long, but will also lack substance. The one after that will probably take awhile because I keep waffling on a very very important decision (it rhymes with burr-stinger), but I think I have a good idea how to get us to a scene I have had in my head since pretty much the start, and another scene that actually preceded the story.


	9. Ch 6: It's not abuse, it's 'Training'

Tristania was quite beautiful. Sasuke could say that he could not think of a single place he had ever been that spoke of such unblemished regality. The older buildings all worked stone. The castle a backdrop near the center of the whole thing, with roads coming out from it like spokes and with the districts cleanly separated and tiered in size. The clearly higher end parts of town sticking up at heights close to that of the lower castle towers, and the buildings getting progressively smaller as they moved into poorer areas, with the story-tall at most market district where people almost certainly traded items like fresh produce.

To Sasuke's left Louise was trying to locate his clone before it managed to peg her with a small stone. She may have led a pampered life, but she certainly had a backbone. Apparently some of that 'rule of steel' stuff rubbed off on her at some point. He had to give her credit, not many people would have asked Sasuke to teach them the ninja arts, and fewer would have all but demanded it.

"_Teach me how to be a ninja." _

_Sasuke hadn't seen Louise since before dinner, apparently something happened when she talked with her mother. To anyone less experienced at reading people they might think she was showing a mix of confidence and expectation, as if there was no way he could refuse her. Instead Sasuke saw insecurity and a strange kind of listful hope._

_There was no way he was going to agree. He walked towards her and a voice reverberated through his mind just as he was about to talk._

"Not today Sasuke, I'm sorry." Sasuke knew that look, because it was a look he wore when he was younger.

It was a look he used on Itachi. Sasuke was in Itachi's shoes, and about to make the same choice.

"_You make it a week with what I start you with and we'll see." was his eventual reply._

_She didn't look gleeful like he was sure his younger self would have been, but she looked relieved that he didn't outright refuse._

_With unusual eagerness for anything that didn't involve her possibly making her magic work right she asked "So, what are we going to do this week?"_

_Sasuke didn't grin, or smirk, his lips just happened to be more comfortable with a slight upward tilt at that moment. Or maybe it was his inner sadist, Sasuke never claimed to be 'normal'._

"Hmm." Sasuke thought for a moment, "That is the task for you, figure out what it is we're doing this week. I'll give you your first hint from my first Sensei. You'll need to look underneath the underneath."

So since yesterday morning he had been periodically making clones of various kinds, and having them hit her lightly with pebbles at seemingly random intervals. She actually caught on pretty quickly, after the tenth time she unexpectedly stumbled while walking because a pebble hit her ankle and caused her to startle she just glared at him, assuming her misfortune was somehow his fault.

By dinnertime she even began noticing that she was being hit from directions that couldn't possibly have been Sasuke himself hitting her.

Now that they had reached Tristania she was getting paranoid, and trying to predict where the stones would come from next. If she kept this up she might manage to start noticing the subtle pattern to when he would get her, she might even be able to start trying to dodge them.

Once she could do that he could probably say that she has the necessary mindset to at least start trying some physical conditioning to catch her body up to her mind. She was very perceptive and intelligent, and also very frail.

Pulling up his mental image of the map given to him by the Duke, Sasuke led the small group that consisted of the daughters of the Valliere family and their familiars towards their first destination for the day. Later tonight they would be making their way to the palace grounds that housed the House of Lords in order to argue the case for Sasuke to be offered a noble title, but first was a trip to one of Eleanor's blacksmith acquaintances.

At some point during his dinner with the elder sisters and their father it had come up that while he had enough supplies for the immediate future, there was no way for Sasuke to obtain more of his tools. If he was to aid the cadet-house in their affairs as agreed he would need to secure a supplier for his weapons. Lawrence understood, but before he could offer a suggestion Eleanor chimed in with earnest in regards to his weapons. She had been the one to collect the various items around the battlefield that were decidedly too important to trust the servant staff to clean up, this included the handful of shuriken and sword used by Sasuke.

Eleanor offered to help him with finding a smithy who could could create new ones based on what he already possessed. The expression on her face reminded him somewhat of Kabuto, whatever else he was that man was rather obsessed with any kind of new or novel information (so was Orochimaru, but unlike the Sannin whose obsession was of the "Knowledge is power" kind, the med-nin's was much more of a "knowing stuff is fun!" kind. Though they both obviously had their shares of screws loose obviously).

If today's search for a blacksmith worked out as well as the Valliere heiress claimed, then he would probably have her help with finding a place that sold brushes and inks. Sasuke always knew the day would come that he would need to actually sit down and practice fuinjutsu. It really just seemed to be inevitable for any ninja who surpassed the rank of Jonin. Having seen it first-hand Sasuke was well aware of how versatile and powerful fuinjutsu was capable of being… In the right circumstances.

He just really never saw it as anywhere near as valuable in his quest to kill Itachi as other things to learn. Whatever gains fuinjutsu offered were outweighed by the massive commitment of time it required just to get someone to a basic level of aptitude. While he very quickly picked up the knowledge required to utilize sealing techniques, he never really had the time to actually practice the physical aspect of actually making seals. Even for someone with perfect muscle control, the margin for error was extremely small and "blew himself up trying to make explosive tags" did not sound like an appealing way for the Uchiha family to finally end.

With that pleasant thought, the small troupe made it to the tradesman district. Walking past Peyman's Potion Shop they finally made it to the blacksmith they were looking for. The sign outside simply said 'McCullugh's Smithy'. The man behind the counter certainly looked the part of a blacksmith, large, heavyset, with arms nearly as thick as Sasuke's torso, and with a thick braided beard-and-mustache combination (A stereotype amongst smiths he never understood back home, and that somehow held true even in a completely different world).

"What'llya 'ave?" The man behind the counter called out before he even looked at them. Looking up his slight slouch went ramrod straight when he saw Eleanor. "Sonova… What crazy nonsense y'ave brewin' now? Damn near lost my eye with whatever that last bit y'had me work on was supposed to be, fer Founder's sake who in their right mind needs trinkets made 'a quicksilver?" The burly man's arms went straight up into the air in a motion of exasperation. "And was it really necessary t'ave those stupid holes filled wit tiny pellets o' flare-ore? Do y'ave ANY idea how 'ard it is to work wit that stuff? Even square mages stay the hell away from it fer a reason!"

Of course the heir to her family could not hold back her own temper in this exchange "You said you could get whatever I needed done, and do it quick, no questions asked. Can't help it if a dumb buffoon like you can't figure out a safe way to work with perfectly normal reagents. If it wasn't for the fact that I didn't have the time to make it myself because of other more pressing research I would have gotten it done in half the time! You were two weeks late!"

"Late? Late! Late she says! You sent it back to me six times saying 'not up to needed quality', because of itty-bitty little nitpicks. If you weren't such a picky little thing you would 'ave 'ad it over a month early!"

Apparently somewhat aware of what was going on Cattleya whispered conspiratorially to Sasuke and Louise "This could be a while. While those two argue like an old married couple on normal occasions, this is excessive even for them. I'd say ten minutes minimum before they are done shouting at each other, maybe we should take a walk around while we wait for them to cool down." Not needing to be asked twice Sasuke nodded his agreement.

Walking out of McCullugh's the three made it half a block before seeing an armory. While he would need the help of a blacksmith to get more ninja wire, shuriken, and his other specialized tools there was plenty to be learned from seeing what passed for common weaponry in this place. Sasuke made his way to store with swords in the window display without so much as making a sound. The sign above was simple, with a picture of a sword and axe, with just the word 'weapons' written on it.

Looking around he saw several items displayed on the walls. The counter stretched all the way down the length of the store, and there were close to a dozen racks of spears and axes. There were even a few barrels filled with swords as well.

Hearing the chime of the door Sasuke assumed that Louise and her sister saw him through the window of the store and decided to follow him in. As the door to the shop was swinging shut he heard the tell-tale squeak and groan that accompanied his clone landing another hit on his not-really-an-apprentice-but-sort-of-we'll-see [name subject to revision] in the ninja arts.

In less than a day since starting he already understood the sick sense of glee that seemed to be par for the course amongst the Jonin Sensei when it came to the harassment and hazing of their students. It was just plain amusing, knowing that you have a legitimate excuse for subjecting someone else to all manner of annoyance and subtle tortures. A part of him really hoped Louise held out and continued with her decision to learn the ninja arts, he found that thinking of all the absurd activities that would actually serve as effective training material was a very relaxing and serendipitous experience.

* * *

"Ugh…" Louise rubbed her arm, which had yet another small bruise to add to her growing collection for the day. To Sasuke's surprise, and Louise's elation she managed to catch one of the stones earlier, instead of being hit by it. It also appeared that she figured out that Sasuke himself was in no way a clue as to where they were coming from. She was pretty sure that he had some launcher or other device that he was manipulating and moving with his chakra, probably a slingshot of some sort given the speed.

Ever since she started having some success in avoiding the stones Louise thought of the exercise as a game, it actually reminded her significantly of some of the specialized games of tag she used to play with Henrietta all those years ago. Louise was fairly sure the miniature trebuchets the two had built for one particularly intense game were still probably rotting out in the forest grounds, unless one of Cattleya-nee's pets got it them of course.

* * *

Making his way over to the walls with weapons on them Sasuke inspected the weaponry. The styles were actually quite different from back home, everything was very simple and utilitarian. mostly straight blades, with leather-wrapped pommels. Very little in the way of curved blades, or anything that one could even remotely see as 'specialized'. Long, thick, hunks of metal with a blade on either or both sides, little to look at but plenty to work with in a fight.

The nicer weapons were mostly the same in terms of design, but with either different materials, extra ornamentation, or both. Looking at the priciest weapons it was obvious that utility was removed in favor of aesthetics. There was no way a blade that looked to be damn near solid gold would ever be useful in a fight. A dull iron blade could probably cut that gilded atrocity in half with little effort.

Sasuke mused about which weapons he would be acquiring from this place. While he may have been running low (low being relative) on his personal supplies of knives, wire and shuriken he still had his various supplies of weapons that he did not normally use himself. Given that he was in a place that had weapons his arsenal lacked, it was only appropriate that he made sure to acquire these weapons.

Sasuke's was aware that he had a bit of an obsession with collecting weapons, Naruto had once joked that if he and Tenten had kids they wouldn't be humans but swords and knives. While Tenten was probably just psychotic, Sasuke had a legitimate reason for his obsession. It was actually an old Uchiha tradition.

Because of their affinity for fire, most Uchiha went into smithing when they retired from the life of a shinobi. It eventually became a tradition that the houses with the weapon-smiths would actually bring enough weapons for their entire teams, and some with enough to act as the resupply for an even larger group. When the village was founded and the Uchiha's wealth expanded it became a common tradition that an Uchiha carried a large enough arsenal for both himself, and anyone he would work with. This often led to many members of the clan having hundreds of weapons sealed away that they never knew how to use.

Sasuke, as a member of the main-house was raised from a young age to both be aware of, and to follow, all of the clan's traditions so that he would reflect well on the main family in the eyes of the clan.

This led to Sasuke to have a hoarder's mindset about weapons. Knowing that he would some work with people who used different weapons than him, he tended to carry things he would never use such as kama, or various sizes and varieties of Bo. Even as a missing-nin, he was well aware that today's enemy could become tomorrow's ally, and as such he would keep items on hand for any potential allies he eventually gained.

Now that he was in a completely different world, he would need a new supply of weapons if he was to keep with this tradition.

Sasuke sighed as he pulled out a scroll from inside his shirt, and bit his thumb as he wiped it across some of the seals. While he didn't have any money of this world, he did have something that apparently everyone everywhere valued. With a small burst of chakra-smoke Sasuke held in his hand a bar of solid gold, stamped with kanji reading "five pounds" and the seal of the daimyo of Fire country.

"I got it!" Louise screamed pointing at a corner of the room, only to be immediately pelted with a stone. Sasuke dismissed his clone with a puff of chakra smoke and a crackle of lightning.

"Hn." Louise turned to face Sasuke, a grin on her face like a child who just did something they thought incredible. All things considered it was probably an appropriate one since she looked the part of a child. "What is it that you got?"

"You can make dopplegangers! That's how you are doing it. They move around from a distance and pelt me with those blasted stones." Her expression quickly went from one of confidence to anxiety as she saw his expression remain impassive.

"Clones, but essentially correct." Having replied as succinctly as possible Sasuke turned to the owner of the store. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and with an intimidating posture slammed the bar of gold on the countertop. This quickly got the attention of everyone in the store, the customers at the counter moved out of his personal space, and a handful of customers in the back began whispering. Looking at the weapon salesman who was inspecting and weighing the gold bar, after weighing it a few times he turned to Sasuke with a smile on his face.

"How can I help you today sir, We have the finest wares in the district I can assure you of that!" Sasuke snorted slightly, he knew what greasing a customer looked like.

"I'm sure you do." Sasuke nearly rolled his eyes at the tired sales-line "I am in need of many items, most of which it appears you have." Walking over to a halberd and pulling it off the wall Sasuke felt power surge through him and without even thinking he was already moving through a kata for the weapon that he had never studied. Information about it forced into his brain "Off balance, too much of the blade's weight is concentrated at the base of the blade."

"Sir, if I may be so bold. That rack is for lower quality items, mostly discounted and whatnot. If I could I would direct you over here" the man pointed at the wall with the highly adorned weapons on it, he even pulled the golden monstrosity off the wall and handed it over "This piece is a work by the great Lord Shupei, a master smith and enchanter. It is made of only the finest metals and gems, and has been worked with magic to ensure that it will never lose its edge, nor its luster!" The merchants arms and hands gesticulating wildly for emphasis.

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke gave the weapon a powerful swing and actually lost his balance in the process and tripped over himself slightly.

"Hah, looks like someone actually knows what he's doing! That hunk of glorified rock might be able to cut through anything, but it'll never cut squat if you can't hit with it. Heavy lopsided thing like that would be better as a club than a sword" The voice came from behind the counter, even though no person was there.

The salesman walked over to one of the sword-barrels and glared at it. "Shut it Derf, or i'll shut it for you, you rusted old piece of scrap! If you mess up any more sales I'll melt you down myself, cost be damned!"

"Ha, I'm the great Derflinger. You can try and melt me but you'll never succeed!"

Sasuke stood there for several moments in confusion before Cattleya finally asked the question on his mind.

"Is the shopkeep arguing with that sword?"

Sasuke had heard of 'blade sentience' before. Supposedly when wielded enough a weapon would gain a kind of soul, the hard work and dedication of its wielder literally imbued into the blade. There were even rumors that many of the legendary weapons such as the seven swordsmen of the mist's blades actually utilized advanced fuinjutsu and human sacrifices to give the swords an even greater level of sentience.

Samehada clearly had a mind of its own to a certain extent from what Sasuke had seen and heard about it, able to choose its own master, and to act on its own desires. On the one occasion when he had run into Kisame while Naruto was out with Jiraiya he definitely heard the shark-man talk to the sword (though it might have been psychosis).

Never in his life had Sasuke ever heard of, or even entertained the idea of a talking sword. Taking a closer look at the blade with his Sharingan he actually noticed something peculiar. While even the people in this world had little or no chakra, that sword had a substantial amount. There were probably genin who boasted smaller reserves than the hunk of metal before him. Walking behind the counter Sasuke kept moving towards the sword despite the requests on the part of the owner of the store to please go back to the other side of the counter.

Not listening Sasuke picked up the talking sword and felt a surge of power overwhelm him from his runes. Turning, and quickly moving through a complicated series of slashes and thrusts that brought him to the other side of the room his trance ended and he placed the sword back in its scabbard and on the counter.

"Hn. We'll start with this one. Hopefully you have other weapons of this quality."

Sasuke spent the next several minutes pulling off random weapons, waving them around and allowing his familiar's runes to guide him in which ones were properly made. Derflinger quipped the entire way, whistling and calling out random statements that sounded like names of attacks. After amassing a sizable collection of various weapons on the counter top he turned to Louise.

"Mastering a weapon is an absolute must for a shinobi. We'll need to pick something out for you to start with. That is if you still want to learn."

After seeing what looked to be a dazzling display of marital expertise with various weapons Louise looked both eager and terrified. Scrunching up her face in thought she finally walked over to a sword that looked very similar to the one Karin had used in their duel. "I am still a mage, so eventually I will need to use a sword-wand. Mother had me do enough fencing drills to at least know the basics."

Nodding at her logic Sasuke picked up the bar of gold that had been sitting on the counter and placed it in the palm of the store-owner. Sasuke then sealed away all of the weapons he had just purchased into one of his scrolls, except for Derflinger and Louise's rapier. Giving the sheathe and strap of the talking blade a once-over, Sasuke realized that his outfit would make holding the sheath anywhere difficult. The weight of the sword was too much to make simply wedging it between the pieces of rope on his waist unworkable, and having it strapped across his chest as it was clearly designed for would limit his maneuverability.

Looping the strap around his left shoulder he quickly pulled the leather into a loop around his rope belt, and then through the hole from the lower part of the leather strap. The sheathe was secured at the tip of his shoulder, and he could easily pivot it so that the hilt was facing forward, allowing for an easy draw while keeping it from coming into contact with the sheathe of his other blade.

He watched as the middle Valliere sibling fussed over Louise and helping her to secure the new sword properly (which considering the length of the blade and the girl's school uniform looked completely ridiculous). Having her own weapon secured Louise gave Sasuke a pointed stare which clearly stated 'If I didn't think it was futile I would kill you for this'. Good, she was learning how to speak without words. The less he had to hear of her talking the better this relationship would end up being. Sasuke wasn't completely anti-social, but keeping talking to a minimum was something he would never object to.

After leaving the store Sasuke blatantly created another clone while Louise was watching. Continuing on the path back to the where Eleanor was hopefully done arguing he heard Louise cry out in pain. Turning slightly she was staring at him with an expression that could only be interpreted as 'Curse you, your children, and all of THEIR children!', to which Sasuke only made a small motion with his fingers suggesting to her that she should probably try blocking the stones with her new sword.

Trying to dodge out of the way of another stone the pink-haired noble didn't seem to get the message.

Her loss, she needed to learn how to communicate like a civilized human being (without talking) sooner or later. He would just make the thrown stones easier to block than dodge until she figured it out.

* * *

AN: Ugh... I actually kinda just hate this chapter. It was one of those things that I realized was going to be necessary (because I made it a personal rule that unless it is absolutely unavoidable I would prefer to actually make sure the story HAS all the little backgroung world-establishing scenes like this chapter, I was unhappy enough that the only way I could manage to get in the scene with Louise asking Sasuke to teach her to be ninja was via flashback, I refuse to do the same with Sasuke's meeting and purchase of Derf).

Things I had hoped to accomplish with this one:  
Set up the whole teacher/apprentice relationship between Sasuke and Louise (succeeded)  
Get Sasuke a hold of Derflinger (Check)  
Demonstrate that Sasuke at this point that Sasuke has gone through some changes to his personality and that it is probably no longer safe to consider him the same Sasuke we all know (and some hate/love) from the original series, but is still clearly recognizable in at least some of his mannerisms (Succeeded... I hope?)

Honestly I really am glad I am done with this, and even if I lose all my readers because this chap is as horrible as I personally think it is I will accept that, because I really want to just be done with much of this story arc... Luckily I only have like 3 more scenes until I get to start moving into stuff I legitimately WANT to be writing rather than stuff that just 'needs' to be written for the story to work (and hopefully interaction with characters other than the inside of Sasuke's head and Louise).

Spoilers ahead:  
Sasuke's fight with Karin. I have received numerous complaints about the fight, and that people feel that Sasuke was underpowered or didn't fight like they thought he would, or that he wasn't using all of the abilities etc etc.

I will be honest and say this flat out, pretty much everything about that fight was there to try and make it as good as possible as a fight scene (because I just never write those). When making certain decisions as the author I had to choose between the tension or pacing in the fight, and having Sasuke do the absurd things he probably could actually do. In the end I decided categorically that I would take the path that made the fight the most interesting rather than what may have actually been most 'appropriate' for Sasuke to have done (though I also did my best to write in enough to justify why Sasuke didn't do it). Other things were specifically arranged to de-power Sasuke (such as him enraging Karin enough to get out her magically enchanted armor), because the versions of the fight where I didn't do this were curbstompy and totally boring, and didn't really fit the vision I had for the purpose of the scene.

Many things that were suggested were things that should (hopefully) be explained later as to why he didn't use them, most of the rest were things that if you actually look at the fight through the eyes of someone who understands the world (and chakra) to work in a particular way (that wind trumps lightning, making using those techniques useless) make sense. Also many options were essentially off-limits from Sasuke's perspective because of unrelated constraints (he was not going to be using any explosive tags in a spar, because he can't get more of them yet).

And then there is the substitution technique.

Realistically there were several points Sasuke 'could' have used it to devastating effect. But I realized something when I had it written with him doing so, it was just brutally anti-climactic.

So after some digging, and rereading pretty much the entire manga I found that it just is not one of the techniques that Sasuke ever uses, ever. I seriously could not locate a single instance in the manga where he utilized the technique in combat. Shunshin? All day every day. Various fire-based techniques? Please, he does them in his sleep. But Substitution? Nope, just does not do it.

There was also mention of the transformation technique. I will just say this right now, Sasuke will never use the technique in this story.

We really just don't know how it works, and he very very rarely uses it in the manga (I believe one time pre-shippuden and then never again after). Most importantly, I just don't like the technique because of how ill-defined its parameters are. We aren't sure if it is purely cosmetic, or if it actually changes one's physical shape/size etc.

I have seen it go either way in fanon, and honestly I don't have a dog in this race, so I'll simply just eschew it and not worry about it.

For those who are interested I am probably going to be putting up some "False ending" Omakes for this series as separate one-shots eventually. All of them should be titled something like "Uchiha Bad-end [#]", and are completely optionally canon to this fic (as in if you the reader like it better than the actual story and its ending, go with it).

Mostly I will be using these to get out of my system any inclination to alter what I have already decided as how I want this particular fic to end, and still get to write all the funny/absurd alternate endings for people to read as well. If/when I do write/post them expect crack pairings and all sorts of silliness that should be obvious as to why never could make it into the actual story.

Please let me know what is/isn't working for you in the story, and what mistakes of grammar or language I make (and please be specific). I can't improve later on if I don't know what I am screwing up now.


End file.
